The Heart Does Go On
by carrotpig
Summary: The Quizilla cult-sensation is back! Seto Kaiba and Ella Campbell have common life goals, but very different personalities. They're both in for one heck of a ride as their lives come together. Warnings: Contains OC, uses English names.
1. Introduction

**Welcome to my story - this chapter is the intro.**

 **Just a heads up: this story was written eight years ago, when I was only seventeen. The original character Ella is a bit of a Mary-Sue (and when I say a bit, I actually mean a lot). I'm re-posting it exactly how it was written in 2010 to keep it nostalgic. One day I might re-write this story and fix all the errors and make a better character. But for now it's staying 'as is' - just a cute and fun little story rather than an artistic and deep one.**

* * *

I wiped the fog from the bathroom mirror, which had appeared after a shower I had just had. I stared at my reflection. I was feeling more self conscious than a teenage girl usually would, and that's saying something. I was picking out my flaws and how I could correct them as I was combing my hair. My eyes still had dark circles from the sleepless nights I used to have. That was months ago, and I got at least 8 hours every night! I had a small breakout on my chin as well, which was quite unusual, as I didn't really suffer from breakouts.

This was undesirable to have for my first day of school. Sure, it was tomorrow, but these problems don't magically go away overnight (trust me, sleep won't get rid of these dark circles, they aren't too terrible but people do comment)

My father decided he wanted to do some more travelling before he retires. So my father and I ended up in Domino, Japan. Thousands of miles away from our home of L.A. in America. Domino was apparently 'Little America' of Japan, sort of like how Montreal is 'Little France' in Canada. People spoke English, people looked western, and if you wanted to live in Japan without the huge cultural difference, Domino is where you would go. I left behind my mother, but no real loss there.

My father managed to get a job at Kaiba Corp, run by the famous (or infamous as some would call him) Seto Kaiba. My father was quite honoured, he admired Seto Kaiba for running such a large company and being so young, my father was set in charge of people at a young age, on a much smaller scale of course, but it still reminded him of himself, and the responsibilities he had. I, on the other hand, didn't really care about Seto Kaiba. I had my eyes set on the business career (future accountant here) but I had my eyes set on banks rather than Kaiba corp., banks are financial institutions, not some stupid duel monsters company. They'd make a lot more net profit, right?

After combing and drying my hair, I decided to straighten it. My self-consciousness led me to believe that if I looked prettier, people would more likely want to be my friend. However studies in psychology also prove that people are more likely to be warmer to attractive people, so as vain and horrible as that sounded I wanted to be pretty.

I set my alarm and crawled into bed after fixing my hair, and surprisingly I fell asleep easily, ready for what was ahead of me the next day.

* * *

 **Each chapter at the end I'm going to put a 'fact of the day' about the story to keep things fun. Here's fact of the day for today: This story was big on Quizilla eight years ago in 2010. A lot of interest for the original Yu-Gi-Oh! story had died out and the stories were scarce. This story topped every 'most popular' and 'highest rated' daily and weekly list and (alongside another story written by a good friend) caused a big revival in Yu-Gi-Oh! stories on Quizilla before its demise. I'm excited to be bringing this story back to life - even though Ella is a terrible character. It's a big dose of nostalgia for me.**


	2. Chapter 1

I awoke the next day feeling tired, even though I had gotten about 9 hours sleep. This had been a normal thing for me for a while, so I was always able to just jump out of bed. My father had already gone to work before I got up, so I was left in an empty house with about half an hour until I had to leave for school.

I did my morning routine exactly how I would have if I still lived in America. First I went to the toilet, then I washed my face and brushed my teeth, then I got dressed, then I had breakfast and lastly I did my hair and make-up.

I decided to keep my hair down, and put in a white headband with my bangs sticking out. The headband looked nice with my long, shiny hair. For my make-up I put on lots of concealer around my dark eyes (which improved just a tiny amount, as they do every night) along with a small amount of cover-up on my face, blush, lip-gloss, eye shadow, eyeliner and mascara. Even though it sounds like I was wearing a lot of make-up, I only apply a little bit to accent my facial features rather than change them.

Finally I was ready to leave the house. I knew the way to school; it was a 15-minute walk. I had done a test run 2 days before so I could know the route and know the time it took to get there. The walk was kind of eventless – I just listened to my iPod the entire walk. I did see a limousine drive past though, that was kind of weird. In L.A. in the city centre it was normal to see limos at all hours of the day, but in a quiet city like Domino you'd expect only to see limos during the afternoon or evening.

I found my way to the Domino High office and told the secretary person I was new. She asked for my name – I gave it to her. Ella Campbell. She quickly gave me my timetable, locker number and combination and I was on my way. I found my locker with ease, but the combination I had troubles with. I began to kick the door out of frustration when a boy jumped out of nowhere.

"Hi, I'm Duke Devlin, how can I be of service to you?"

Even though I was shy and in desperate need of making friends, his cockiness annoyed me. However I was probably nicer than I usually would be in this situation, so only a sarcastic reply came from my lips:

"I didn't ask for your help, but I can't get my locker combination"

"Well then," Duke started and took the papers off me "let me take a look"

"Hey, who is this?" I heard a new voice say, and I looked up to see a new group of four people. Three boys and one girl.

"Hii," I shyly said, "My name is Ella."

"It's nice to meet you, are you new?" The smallest boy politely asked.

"Yeah, new to the country, new to the city, new to the school. Thanks for your warm welcome." I smiled.

"It's always nice to meet a friendly person. I'm Tea." The girl said.

"No, you twist the lock this way!" The blonde hair guy said, who had already taken a hold of the paper with my combination on it and was fighting with Duke.

"Uh guys, I appreciate your help and all...but uh, now you know my locker combination. You can like, break in now..." I trailed off.

"Nah we wouldn't do that to ya, we're jus' being helpful" The blonde haired guy said.

"Brooklyn accent, nice. Fellow American, I'm from LA." I smiled.

"Yeah, I kinda miss NYC at times. I've been here in Domino for a long time though, and I wouldn't trade it in for the world. All my best pals are here, and that's not something you'd ever find in New York." The blonde one said.

"Joey, you forgot to introduce yourself." Tea said, reading my mind.

"Oh, right. Joey Wheeler, second best duellist in the world," Joey said, prodding his chest proudly. "That's Yugi Motou, first best duellist in the world. Then there's Tea Gardner as she said, and the other guy you haven't met is Tristan Taylor. You've already met Duke Devlin."

"Um, hi. This is kind of overwhelming…I didn't expect to meet so many people at once." I said, scratching my head.

"Here guys, let me try" Yugi said, taking the paper from Joey and Duke who were fighting about it.

Within seconds, the locker popped open.

"I was just about to do that" Joey whined, and Duke just huffed.

I dumped my bag in my locker without taking out any books. I read that I had homeroom in room 34, and then I had double maths in room 67.

I grabbed my maths textbook and maths folder, and when I closed my locker I noticed that the gang was still there.

"What homeroom are you in?" Tea asked me.

"Um, I have Mr. Teresy in room 34" I replied.

"Oh, goody. You're in the same home room as Yugi and I" Tea said excitingly.

"Tristan, Joey and I are in the homeroom across the hall from yours." Duke told me as we started making our way towards our homerooms.

"That's...nice." I replied, not really knowing what to say.

"So yeah, if you need anything, just let me know." Duke winked.

Tristan rolled his eyes, and Joey started yelling at Duke. I later found out that Duke and Tristan fought for a long time over Joey's sister, and Tristan emerged as the winner, but was still weary of Duke. I don't know why Joey got mad at Duke for lightly flirting with me though.

All I knew though was that I had made friends at Domino. And that's all that was really important to me at that point in time.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: When I originally posted this story, I updated nearly every day (Sunday - Thursday). I only didn't update Friday and Saturdays as I used to work those days and then saw my boyfriend at the time after work. Eww. But I've decided as I'm re-posting this story as a trip down memory lane I'm going to keep the same updating schedule.**

 **Big shoutout to i . was. kit** **ten for the review - thank you!**


	3. Chapter 2

Homeroom wasn't all that different to the one I had in LA. The teacher would mark the roll, read out the announcements, hand out any notices or anything else that needed to be handed out, and all students sat there chatting amongst their peers. All in all, it was the same waste of time it was in America.

Tea introduced me to one of her acquaintances, Kathryn. I could tell from their awkward conversation and body language that Kathryn and Tea were only the sort of friends who spoke to each other in school during class, and at the end of high school if they did keep in contact it would only be one face book conversation every 6 months. But it was still nice to get to know another person of Domino High.

The bell rang and everyone stormed out of the classroom.

"What class do you have now?" Yugi asked me.

"Maths, room 67." I sighed. Maths and I didn't get along.

"Oh, that sucks. I don't think anyone is in that class," Tea told me.

My stomach sort of fell. But I was new; I could make new friends in that class, right?

Wrong. So very wrong. Apparently it wasn't necessary to take maths at Domino High, because the demographic of students in that class looked like they were going to be rocket scientists, or doctors, or other high paid professions.

Knowing it was wrong to judge a book by its cover, I approached and sat down at a table with a group.

"Hi. I'm Ella. I'm new. What are your names?" I asked the group.

"Leave us alone," one hissed, "You'll just distract us."

Usually I'd say a smart comeback, but feeling shocked and intimidated I picked up my books and sat at the front of the room in a spare spot. My eyes scanned the room, and I saw a boy who looked a little older than me with piercing blue eyes and brown hair, smirking. I could tell he was smirking at the reaction I had just gotten.

From his body language and his stern gaze upon me, I knew it was best not to talk to him. On the outside he looked like an attractive young male, but on the inside I knew he probably thought similarly to the 'nerds' who just shooed me away.

The teacher scurried in and placed her books down. She peered at the class, and sighed a breath of relief.

"Oh, good. I had a terrible class last year, you're all good students, except for the new faces I see" She said, and I saw her look at me.

"Anyway, I've still made a seating plan so you can all reach your full potential. The seating plan is girl – boy and I'll write who sits next to who on the white board."

The teacher then drew a quick diagram of the classroom and the tables. She then began to start writing names in the tables. Then, I couldn't believe who I was seated next to.

Ella Campbell – Seto Kaiba

I immediately knew the attractive boy with the piercing eyes was Kaiba. I knew he was young, but I had no idea that he was attending school – and my school for that matter!  
I grabbed my books for the second time, and stood in front of his desk. He didn't acknowledge my presence.

"Are you Seto Kaiba?" I asked, to be on the safe side.

He looked up, gave me a death glare and growled a "yes" I knew I had offended him by not instantly recognising him.

"I thought so, I was just making sure. I know you're an important figure of society; you're a great businessman and a great duellist. You're also my Dad's boss, so I do know who you are." I said as I sat down.

Kaiba chose to ignore me. I felt okay as the teacher was explaining to us the rules of the class and what to expect, but I felt awkward as we were given tasks to do from the textbook. Not only was the guy next to me intimidating in general, but also he was my Dad's boss! I wasn't sure if it was good or not he would probably ignore me the whole year, but I knew it was awkward and intimidating, and that wasn't good.

* * *

"How was maths?" Yugi asked politely at lunch.

"It was okay, I guess. I'm seated next to Seto Kaiba." I shrugged.

Joey choked on his food, while a round of "you poor thing" "I'm sorry!" and similar phrases went around.

"Yeah he does seem like a jerk." I replied, and Yugi changed the topic.

"Why don't we all look at Ella's timetable and see which classes we have with her?"

"That's a good idea." I replied, and everyone agreed.

Everyone circled around me to check my timetable.

Now, the way classes were done in Domino was different to America. You had 5 subjects, and 1 subject was designated for study hall. In each day there were 6 classes, and everyone had lunch together. Every day there were 4 single periods and 1 double period – so every day you missed one of your subjects. And as I said before, Domino was a "Little America" so plain old English was taught, and not English as a Second Language.

It turned out I only had one class with Yugi and Tea: English. I had Accounting, Economics and Legal with Duke, he informed me that he ran his own business, so he decided that business subjects would be beneficial for him. I also had English and Legal with Joey and Tristan, apparently when they were younger they used to have run ins with the law and decided to take Legal so they would know their rights – apparently Tristan was doing okay in it but Joey was really struggling.

During the rest of lunch I met another one of the 'gang' his name was Bakura. He seemed okay, but he was sort of shy so we didn't talk.

But soon lunch was over, and we were trudging back into the classroom. My double for today was English, with Joey, Tristan, Tea and Yugi. Let's see who else is in my class.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: I'm thinking of re-writing this story one day, when I have a lot more time on my hands. For now I'm just copying and pasting the 2010 version of this story.**


	4. Chapter 3

Instead of waking up to my alarm, I woke up to my phone receiving a text message.

I checked my phone and saw it was from my father

 _"Hi, I left some important work documents on the kitchen table. Kaiba Corp is just a few minutes away from your school, can you drop them off after school?"_

Feeling tired and still out of it, I texted back saying yes. Noticing the time was about an hour before I usually got up, I decided to pretty myself up today.

It wasn't a random idea that came to my head. I was going to pretty myself up for a reason, a Mr. Joey Wheeler had offered to drive me to school today. Apparently his Mum had recently given him money to buy a moderate car, because his sister was apparent on staying in Domino with her brother and new friends, and his Mum gave him money for a car so he could drive Serenity places she needed to go.

But the reason why I wanted to look pretty was because I had developed a small crush on him. He was funny, cute, and seemed to care a lot about the people around him. What wasn't to like?

I took a really quick shower and used my perfumed soap to smell nice, and then stepped out. I cleaned my face and brushed my teeth, and then quickly blow-dried my hair. I gave myself soft curls and used hair spray to let them stay in place before I did my make-up.

I was happy with myself, I hadn't planned on getting this dressed up, and I had only planned on blow-drying my hair at the most.

If you're wondering how the idea of Joey driving me to school came about, it happened last night after school.

I went to Yugi's grandfather's game shop with Tea, Tristan, Joey and Yugi to meet "Gramps"  
The Game Shop was a nice small shop with a genuine feel and Gramps was a nice guy.

We were all up in Yugi's room, and the boys were telling me how Duel Monsters worked and were trying to convince me to start playing. Apparently Gramps had cooked something because the boys ran downstairs to eat, and then Tea had confronted me.

She told me she had noticed Joey and I were flirting a bit, and we kept stealing looks at each other. I didn't realise I was doing it, but when it was pointed out to me it made sense.

I was embarrassed, so I changed the topic quickly. But apparently (As Joey told me later) downstairs Tristan was having the same conversation with Joey. It was cut short when Tea and I bounded down the stairs though.

However, Tristan and Joey's conversation had given Joey enough encouragement to move things along, and he offered to drive me to school tomorrow. I accepted, and here I was now waiting for Joey to pick me up.

As I was putting my books in my bag, I heard the doorbell ring. I quickly shoved my books in, sprayed a sweet smelling perfume on me and ran downstairs with my bag.

"Hi Ella." Joey smiled as he saw me.

"Hi Joey." I smiled back, and he caught me off guard with an embrace.

The embrace lasted for at least half a minute, longer than a friendly embrace would be, and I felt butterflies in my stomach.

"Well I don't know about you, but I'm starvin' do you want to stop off at Mc Donalds for breakfast before school?" Joey asked me.

"Yeah, I could do with some McDonalds hot cakes right now." I replied, and we jumped into his car.

"Oh, by the way, you look real pretty today Ella." Joey grinned.

"Thank you Joey." I said, smiling and taking the compliment.

Joey pulled into the McDonalds and we ordered and sat down.

"Is this a date?" I asked him.

He froze, and looked down at the floor with a blush covering his cheeks.

"Joey?" I asked quietly, not happy with the reaction I had received.

"I would like it to be" He blushed.

"Yeah, me too." I smiled at him.

* * *

My second day of school was nearly as uneventful as the first. Like the first, it was comprised of class, getting to know everyone, and getting completely ignored by Kaiba in maths class. He did look at me a few times though?

During lunch I sat next to Joey, and I put my head on his shoulder without even realising it. I quickly lifted it when everyone commented, how embarrassing!

My Dad had texted me the directions to Kaiba Corp, and said just to ask for his office at the front desk.

At the desk, there was a secretary who was furiously typing away on her computer.

"Hi, um, I'm looking for Andy Campbell? He said to ask you to tell me where his office is?" I asked her.

"Kay, let me check" She said, and then typed away on her computer some more.

"Says here that Andy Campbell's office is in the accountancy floor, which is floor 3. His office is room 3E. Just take the elevator to the side of me to floor 3 and find the room number" She smiled at me.

"Thanks! Bye" I called out to her and pressed the "up" button for the elevator

When the elevator got there, some businessmen walked out, and gave me strange looks for wearing my uniform. I got into the elevator, and decided to take off my pink blazer so I wouldn't stand out so much.

Under my pink blazer was a white singlet top (Me: Notice how Domino girls have white under their pink? I have no idea if it's meant to be inbuilt into the uniform or not but in my story they wear white shirts or singlets :P) and I was lucky that I decided to wear a white bra that day.

I didn't exactly like wearing this singlet top though. I was lucky enough to be born with a voluptuous fixture – breasts above the normal size, a thin waist and wide hips. I gave up on embracing my figure a long time ago – it has gotten me into a lot of trouble.

I arrived on floor 3, and I exited the elevator. The hallway had 2 doors on each side, and in the distance I could see office cubicles. 3E was easy to find, and without thinking I walked in without knocking.

This was not my Dad's office.

I saw a board of men sitting in a conference room, facing a whiteboard. A presentation was being made. The person writing on the whiteboard was Mr. Seto Kaiba himself. Uh oh...

As I entered, everyone looked at me, and Kaiba gave me the biggest glare ever.

"Are you looking for your father?" He asked me coldly.

How did he remember I told him my father worked here? He's ignored me for 2 days; I didn't know he listened to me.

"Yes. My apologies sir for interrupting, but your secretary sent me to floor 3, room 3E." I bowed my head.

I knew how this kind if corporate culture worked - Suck up!

"I see. Well Miss Campbell, take a seat." Kaiba told me, and the board of men looked confused.

"Why do you want her at this meeting?" One of the men asked.

"Because, Mr. Hurst, I need to talk to her about Karen. She's been making a lot of mistakes like this and it's affecting business. I need to get the story straight so we can give Karen another warning." Kaiba replied, and then went on with his presentation.

"Now, you are grown men. You have gone through college. You are paid professional accountants, yet every time I go through Kaiba Corp's accounting reports, they are wrong. Why?" Kaiba asked.

The men grumbled out excuses, and Kaiba dimmed the lights and put on a projector showing accounting reports – ledger accounts, trial balances, profit and loss statements, cash flow statements and a balance sheet.

"What's wrong here? The balance sheet balances, yet these reports are wrong. Why?" Kaiba asked the men.

"Trick question!" one bellowed.

"It's not a trick question." I said, from the back of the room, and everyone looked at me.

I walked to the front of the room.

"The ledger accounts are wrong. You didn't add a credit for every debit, which in turn made the trial balance wrong, which means you entered the wrong figures in the cash flows, profit and loss and eventually the balance sheet." I said, pointing to the figures.

"Correct, Miss Campbell." Kaiba replied, and showed an emotion for once: shock.

"Men, take a recess. I need to talk with Miss Campbell for a few minutes." Kaiba told the men, and they quickly left.

Is this going to be good or bad?

* * *

 **Fact of the day: When I originally wrote this story, I would always start writing at 9 o' clock at night. I was in senior year and studied really hard - from the time I got home, until 9pm except for a quick dinner break. But I'd take out all my frustrations onto writing and this is why I always finished chapters Sunday - Thursday nights. As stated previously my updating schedule was (and is, once again) Sunday - Thursday, so I'll see y'all on Sunday!**


	5. Chapter 4

Kaiba paced around the now-empty room for a few seconds, and then took a seat next to me.

"So firstly, let's discuss Karen – the front secretary." Kaiba told me.

"Um ok, but there's not much to discuss. She looked on the computer where my father's desk was, she told me floor 3, room 3E. I came in here; it's not the right one. Simple." I replied.

"I see. Your father's office is 2 doors down. I will take you there with him myself, after the next thing we need to discuss." Kaiba said.

"Okay. With all do respect, what else do we need to discuss?" I asked him.

"Have you ever had a job, Miss Campbell?" Kaiba asked me.

"Yes. I had a part time job back in America, I worked in a grocery store." I told him.

"Have you ever had a corporate job?" Kaiba asked me.

Why is he asking me these things? He has completely ignored me for the past 2 days, now he's asking about jobs I've previously had?

"No, not at the moment. I'm still in school, as you know, there's no way in hell I'm dropping out to get a corporate job. I'd be stuck like your stupid secretary in a low paying job, with no career development because I'd be uneducated, so I'd be stuck as a secretary my whole life." I sneered.

I actually saw him smile, okay smirk, no, it's a half smirk half smile. Who would have thought that?

"That's a very good attitude you have there, Miss Campbell. If you keep at it, I'm very sure you will go far in life." Kaiba told me.

"Thank you Mr. Kaiba." I told him.

"However, you don't need to drop out of school to receive a corporate job. What if I were to offer you a corporate job right now, with flexible hours to suit your schooling needs?" Kaiba asked me.

"Um, I wouldn't believe you. You're a smart man, you run your business well and you receive huge profits. You wouldn't hire a high school student like me, I haven't gotten the proper education." I told him.

"But that's the thing Miss Campbell, I think your high school education is exactly the right requirements for the job. My newest graduated accountants, they're great at all the advanced stuff, but it seems they've forgotten the basics – the basics you're learning in your little Accounting class at high school." Kaiba said.

"So you want me to teach your newly graduated college accountants the basics of accounting? Why me? Why not a college professor, or even someone who's been an accountant for years?" I asked him.

"As you said Miss Campbell, my company takes in huge profits. I like to keep expenses down. You will be paid for what you're worth, but you're still a lot cheaper than a college professor or a professional accountant." Kaiba smirked.

"True...so when do you want me to start?" I asked him.

"How about Friday after school?" Kaiba asked.

"That sounds good." I replied.

I could see he had something to say, and it pained him in doing so. I waited patiently for him to spit it out.

"We will need to discuss some things before you begin, so on Friday after school I will give you a ride to Kaiba corp. so we can get all information we needed exchanged." Kaiba told me.

"Okay." I said.

"Good, well that's all we need taken care of, so I'll take you to your father." Kaiba said and got up, and I followed him out.

He opened the door for me, but I took it more of a "business type" thing rather than chivalry. Businessmen always open the door for clients, so I took it as him doing it automatically.

Kaiba walked into the room next door, where my father was working.

"Mr. Campbell, I've had a few words with your daughter." Kaiba said.

"I'm sorry if she's bothered you." Dad said, and gave me an evil look.

"No, she's actually been a great service to me. She corrected some young accountants who couldn't work out what mistakes they are making. I've offered her a job to teach these young accountants until they learn." Kaiba told my father.

"Really? She did tell you she's in high school, yes?" Dad asked him.

"Yes, she did. She is perfect for the job. Now, I must return to those young accountants to tell them the good news, then I must have a word with Karen..." Kaiba said, and walked out.

"I don't know how it happened either." I said to my Dad, when he turned to look at me.

"Do you have the documents?" Dad asked me.

"Yeah, here they are." I said, and handed him the documents.

"Well, thanks for coming. I'm sure you have a lot of homework to do, so I'll let you go home. I'll ask Mr. Kaiba later about any other details you need to know." Dad said, and I thanked him and walked out.

* * *

"Ella?" Dad called out to me when he got home.

"Wait, Joey. My Dad is calling out to me." I said, and I put the phone down.

"Yes Dad?" I asked.

"Have you done your homework?" Dad asked me.

"Yeah, I did it as soon as I got home." I told my father.

"Good. I spoke to Mr. Kaiba; he said he's giving you a lift to work on Friday with him. That's very generous and out of character for him, so I want you to know that and thank him at the time. He said that on Friday you could wear your school uniform, so you don't need to go out and buy corporate clothes. He said after Friday he'll negotiate with you when you will work next, and you can wear whatever you want." Dad informed me.

"Thanks Dad. But why is he allowing me to wear what I want?" I asked my Dad.

"It seems Mr. Kaiba is using you to embarrass the men. By you wearing your fashion, it emphasises that a schoolgirl is teaching them knowledge that they don't know, or have forgotten. It's a fine job, it would be nice to show idiots how idiotic they are." Dad laughed.

I laughed too, albeit it was a little forced.

"Thanks Dad." I replied, and went back to my room.

"Dad was just telling me about my job at Kaiba Corp. on Friday." I told Joey.

"Man I still can't believe Kaiba hired you, like that!" Joey told me.

"I know." I replied.

"Speakin' of Friday" Joey said to me.

"Yes?" I asked.

"After your work at Kaiba Corp. did you want to..." Joey started, and had trouble finishing his sentence.

"Yes?" I asked.

"Did you want to maybe go to the movies with me? I could pick you up." Joey said, and I put my hand over the phone speaker and let out a huge squeal and danced around excitingly.

"Sure, Joey. I would like that." I replied, trying to contain my excitement.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: I forgot to update yesterday, sorry :( I might post a make-up chapter on the weekend instead (on a normal non-updating day). We'll see.**


	6. Chapter 5

The rest of my week at Domino High was fairly uneventful. I did manage to get closer to Yugi, Tea, Tristan, Bakura, Duke and Joey though. Especially Duke and Joey. While I didn't get closer to Duke in a romantic sense, we seemed to click very well and shared a lot of the same views.

People in our group started to make a lot of comments about Joey and I. On Wednesday I subconsciously leaned my head onto Joey's shoulder, and we didn't hear the end of it. Yesterday we held hands for a second, and we got it even worse. We haven't even gone on our first proper date yet!

And then Friday came around. The day of Joey's and mine date, as well as my first day at Kaiba Corp.

* * *

It was 2.58, period 6 on a Friday afternoon. Everyone was just discussing their plans for the weekend. The teacher had given up teaching a long time ago, everyone was way too restless.

"So, do you guys want to come by my shop on Saturday? Ella's seen Yugi's grandfather's shop, but she hasn't had the chance to see mine." Duke asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Ella might not be interested in your sho-" Joey started, but I cut him off.

"Sure Duke, I'd love to see your shop!" I squealed.

Even though Joey is a nice, cute, caring, charming etc. guy, his jealousy was a little overwhelming for me. I know he's had past battles with Duke, but he'd get jealous every time I spoke to another guy. Even Kaiba!  
Speaking of Kaiba, we hadn't exchanged words since Tuesday at Kaiba Corp. It was strange, before our little meeting he'd sometimes take sidewards glances at me during Maths, but now he just stares down at his work. It's like I didn't even exist to him.

Which is why Joey shouldn't be jealous of Kaiba. Jealousy got in the way of my past relationship with my ex; I didn't want to have to go through that again.

"Well text or call me sometime tomorrow to organise everything, kay?" Duke asked me as the bell rang.

"Sure." I said, as we all grabbed our books and exited the classroom.

Luckily most of the group's lockers were near each other's, so we all packed our bags and got to say goodbye at the same time.

"I suggested to Tristan, Joey and Ella that tomorrow we should show Ella my shop, considering she's seen Yugi's grandpa's. Ella thought it was a good idea, and as did Joey, naturally after hearing Ella's reaction," Duke smirked "So what does everyone else think"

"I think you're a wise guy!" Joey said loudly, but Yugi quickly jumped in.

"I think that's a great idea."

"Oh crap!" I said loudly, looking at my watch "Kaiba is giving me a lift to work! I better go out there in case he chews me out for being irresponsible or something. We all know what he's like!"

Everyone laughed, agreed, and wished me well as I quickly hugged everyone goodbye and ran down the hallway and out the door to the front gate.

As I expected, Kaiba was already there with his school bag, waiting for me.

"Sorry I'm late, I doubled checked I had all my homework, didn't want to forget anything." I panted.

"Understood, Miss Campbell. I didn't set a time, and you didn't keep me waiting. School work is important, also." Kaiba replied.

Wtf? Isn't this guy well known for being cold hearted? While he has been ignoring me in class, he's shown nothing but understanding towards me. He hasn't been rude at all.

"Thank you for your understanding." I thanked him, and he smirked as his limousine driver opened the door.

"Ladies first." Kaiba remarked, and I jumped into the limousine first.

The whole drive was silent. I wanted to ask Kaiba why he was being kind to me – well as kind as the infamous cold hearted Seto Kaiba could be. However I knew asking that could only bring on chaos, and I've been trying my hardest to show my manners towards him. He was my employer after all.

"We're here. You probably want some time to freshen up and just to "chill out" I suppose" Kaiba said, once the limousine pulled in to the front door.

"I guess, maybe just to freshen up and have a snack. You've given me a job, and I'm not going to take advantage of that. Give me a time limit." I told him.

"Good attitude, Miss Campbell. As I've stated before, you have the attitude to make your way up the corporate ladder. It is now 3.15pm, you have until 3.40pm. I will personally show you where the ladies restroom is, and where my office is located." Kaiba said, and I nodded as we exited the limousine and made our way into the building.

As we walked past the secretary at the front – Karen, she gave me a dirty look and I gulped. I'd already made an enemy in my work. We got into the elevator, with 4 other employees. They all looked nervous and huddled into the corner, intimidated of Kaiba.

Kaiba ignored this as he explained the structure of the building.

"Each level has a different department. The lower levels are made up of our financial departments, whilst the middle and higher are made up of the things you think of when you think of Kaiba corp., the technology, the games, and the alike. My office is on level 12, as is the main restrooms." Kaiba explained to me.

"Okay." I replied, at a loss at what to reply with.

The other employees got off on their respective levels, and it was just Kaiba and I. I nervously tapped my fingernails on the handrails, and we finally reached level 12 with a *ding*

"The main ladies restrooms are at the end of the corridor, my office is down the other way. Just talk to my secretary Emma, she will let you into my office." Kaiba said, and walked in the opposite direction.

I found the ladies restroom and walked in. It was completely deserted, and looked very modern. There were multiple hand basins lined in a row, and 4 cubicles. The restrooms smelled like baby powder, very clean and fresh.

I walked into the cubicle and stripped out of my uniform. I was going to wear my uniform but Joey was going to pick me up at 5.30pm on the dot – no time to change. I ended up wearing a frayed denim mini skirt and a plain t-shirt that hugged my curves. Not an outfit that screamed "take me I'm easy!" but not an outfit that made me look like a prude.

I walked out of the cubicle and looked into the mirror. My hair was a little sweaty from the day's events, plus it was still sort of warm so I decided to do a little trick the Internet had taught me.

I got out a small bottle of baby powder I carried everywhere. I put a small amount into my hair, and combed it out. The baby powder absorbs all the grease in your hair so your hair goes back to being nice and soft.

After doing this I splashed my face with cold water, dried it and re applied my make-up.

I exited the ladies restroom and found a water cooler. Feeling a little thirsty, I took a drink of cold water and gulped it down quickly.

I made my way to the other side of the corridor and met with Kaiba's personal secretary. Unlike Karen, this "Emma" looked very professional, and much older, middle aged.

"Hey, I'm Ella Campbell. Apparently Mr. Kaiba is expecting me?" I asked her.

"Indeedy he is. Just go inside, he said I didn't need to page him." Emma smiled, and I smiled back as I walked in.

"You're early, I like that." Kaiba told me.

I looked at my watch. 3.30, so it was.

"Yeah, whilst I didn't rush, there's no need to wait around and do nothing. Time is money." I giggled.

"Let me get Emma to call the accounting office and get our little recent college grads into the conference room." Kaiba said, and spoke into his intercom.

"Emma, can you please call floor 3 and tell them to get the group of accountants to be trained into the conference room."

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba." Emma replied.

"So, how is Maths going for you?" Kaiba asked me.

Now this was weird. Idle chitchat? Why ask me this question now, when he can ask it in Maths?

"It's okay, I guess. Maths is probably one of my biggest weaknesses. It's silly, I get the methods used, very well, but it's the answers I have the problem with. Anyway, if I didn't do Maths my college choices would be fairly limited." I explained.

"I see." Kaiba replied.

"Um, may I ask, why ask me now? You could have easily asked that in maths, when we're actually doing the content…" I nervously asked.

Kaiba made a sort of growling noise, and I felt intimidated and looked down at the floor.

"Interesting outfit choice." He commented, changing the subject.

"Um...ya. I'm going on a date after work, so I decided to change out of my uniform." I told him.

"Date hey?" He sort of laughed "with who?"

"Joey Wheeler." I quietly said, knowing their rivalry.

"Joey Wheeler snagged you? I can't believe you're with that dog." Kaiba said.

This kid keeps shocking me. I understood his reaction – but damn, he used the word 'snagged' street terms much? I can't believe Seto Kaiba can let down his professional demeanour.

However, his insult of Joey in my presence sparked a fuse in me.

"Hey! Watch what you say! Insulting my life choices during work and making judgement calls is bound to be discrimination and/or sexual harassment." I argued.

"Discrimination, maybe depending on the case. Sexual harassment no. But I wasn't making judgement calls," Kaiba said putting his hands up "everyone at school just thinks you and Duke Devlin are together."

"Duke? Why?" I asked Kaiba.

"I don't know. I don't join the gossip networks. I just overheard people discussing it. People assume it because of how close you two are and how much time you spend together." Kaiba replied.

"Okay…" I said.

"Besides, Duke is considered an attractive guy, you're a pretty girl, you two suit a lot better than you and the dog" Kaiba smirked.

A small blush appeared on my face. While I wasn't crazy about Duel Monsters, so many girls would KILL to be called pretty by Seto Kaiba, even if he wasn't saying it to compliment me.

"Mr, Kaiba, conference room on floor 3 is ready for Miss Campbell." Emma paged through the intercom on Kaiba's desk.

"Thanks Emma." Kaiba said.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: Even though Ella is a Mary-Sue, she's based off someone I knew when I wrote this back in the high school days. I'll probably give more details about this at the end of the story.**

 **As always big shoutout to kitten for the reviews - appreciate it. I swear I always write out your full username but the doc manager hates me and always shortens it. I don't mean to be rude by shortening it - sorry!**


	7. Chapter 6

Kaiba and I had a quiet walk to the conference room 3E. In the elevator we were on opposite sides, and his eyes would not stop looking at me. He had no emotion on my face. I wanted to scream "WHAT?" but I knew it was not appropriate to do so.

"You will be in 3E today, the same room we discussed everything in on Tuesday afternoon." Kaiba told me.

"Okay." I replied.

"I wish you luck." Kaiba smirked, and he opened the conference room door for me, and turned into the opposite direction.

I gulped, took a deep breath and walked in.

All the men in the room gave out a whistle, which made me blush.

"I don't see why we have to listen to you." One of the men shouted at me.

"Because, if you don't, you will be considered untrained and therefore no use to Kaiba Corp. If you get fired it will be perfectly legal." I smirked.

Everyone in the room went quiet.

At the corner of my eye I saw Kaiba standing outside who was watching what was happening. He mirrored my smirk, and walked away.

* * *

"Well, it's 5.20 and we've covered everything we need to today, so I guess we can finish 10 minutes early. I'm not sure when the next meeting will be, but I guess I'll see you then." I said to the men, and they all got up and said bye to me as they walked out.

My father walked in.

"I could hear from down the hall, you really had them eating out of your hands. Those recent college grads are really hard to control, this is apparently their last straw before they get fired." Dad told me.

"Yeah, they were kind of rowdy to begin with, but I just laid down the line and reminded them that they're on the brink of being fired." I replied.

"I'm going home now too, would you like a lift?" Dad asked.

"Nah, a friend is picking me up. I'll be home later though." I told Dad.

"Sure. I'll see you later." Dad said and he walked out.

As Dad was walking out, Kaiba walked in.

"Maybe those idiots do stand a chance with you teaching them what they should already know." Kaiba smirked.

"Yeah, maybe." I said quietly.

"When would you like to work again?" Kaiba asked me.

"I'm not sure. It's up to you." I replied.

"Next Friday?" Kaiba asked me.

"Yeah okay, same arrangements?" I asked him.

"Certainly." Kaiba said.

"Well, I'd love to stay and chat but I have to run." I said, and I was about to walk out but Kaiba grabbed my wrist.

His grip was fairly tight, and it hurt me so I shouted "Hey! What gives?"

"I bet you and that dog won't last 5 seconds together." Kaiba smirked.

"It's none of your business." I snapped at him, and tried to make him let go but it only resulted in hurting more.

"What do you even see in him?" Kaiba asked me.

"Why should you care?" I snapped, and he let out a laugh.

"Because I find this incredibly amusing."

"Because I like his outside and inside." I glared.

"As I said, you and Joey won't last 5 seconds and you'll find someone who is worthy of you." Kaiba said, and let go of his grip.

I ran to the elevator as fast as I could, and pressed the "G" button.

What the hell does he mean? 'Move onto someone more worthy' he can't mean himself right? He's such a jerk; I don't know why he's getting involved into my private matters.

I walked outside the front doors and saw Joey waiting outside his car.

"Hey Ella." Joey smiled, and embraced me.

"Hey Joey." I smiled.

I saw Joey glare at something and begin to growl, and I turned around to see Kaiba walking towards us.

"Growling like the dog you are, I see." Kaiba smirked.

"Quit it Kaiba!" Joey snarled.

"Well Ella, I came here to return this book to you, but your dog on a leash seems to be attacking me." Kaiba said, as he handed me the book we had to read for English.

Hang on, I didn't take this out of my bag AT ALL, and I hadn't opened my bag since I went to the restroom as soon as I got here – and I checked I had everything then. Which means...

"You stole this from my bag just for an excuse to come out here and say nasty things about Joey." I said to Kaiba.

"That's a bit of a bold accusation to make without any evidence." Kaiba smirked.

"Yeah well, I've had enough of your shit for a lifetime. I quit." I said, which shocked Kaiba.

He regained his composure a few seconds later.

"Are you sure you want to quit on your first day? You could be making a big mistake." Kaiba told me.

"I may be," I agreed "However I will not stand for you getting involved with my personal matters, hurting my wrist, stealing my stuff and saying bad things about my friends."

"Fine then, throw everything away. You've proved me wrong Ella, I thought you would be a worthy person but you've just jumped onto the friendship brigade and ruined your chances at everything." Kaiba growled.

"You know, there's some things you can't learn in college or in a corporation. Those are social skills." I said to him, and he let out a low growl and walked back inside.

"What a god damned jerk." Joey said as he glared at the back of Kaiba's head.

"Yeah." I agreed.

"Wait, he HURT YOU?" Joey shouted, and grabbed my wrist.

"It's bruising already!" He exclaimed, looking at the redness of it.

"Yeah, look I'd rather just forgot this whole encounter and have a good night with you. I will NOT let Seto Kaiba ruin our first date." I said, and Joey nodded as we got into his car.

"So, I have a plan for tonight." Joey told me.

"Ya?" I asked.

"Every Friday night, the movie theatre shows an old movie. Tonight, they're showing Titanic. Would you like to see it?" Joey asked.

"That's one of the best movies of ALL time!" I squealed.

"I'll take that as a yes." He chuckled.

"Have you seen it before?" I asked him.

"No," He replied. "Also, Tristan is taking Serenity out on a date tonight, but not to the movie. He suggested we should all meet up after we do what we do and grab a bite to eat. What do you think?"

"That sounds great, I'd love to meet Serenity." I smiled.

"Great" Joey smiled.

We arrived at the movie theatre, and Joey insisted on paying. He said it was the rule that guys pay for everything on first dates.

We then bought the popcorn. Joey bought me a small popcorn, a small drink and an ice cream. He wanted to buy more, but I insisted that's all I needed. He bought two large popcorns, a large drink and two ice creams.

He had already gone through half of one of his popcorns by the time we got to the cinema.

As we handed the tickets to the person at the front who tells you where your cinema is, I felt a small pang inside me. I remembered what my ex used to do; he used to pretend to be from another country and pretended he could speak little English. It was always funny watching the person try and tell him where to go in as simple English as they could use.

Snap out of it Ella! He's all the way back in L.A. and he's a stupid asshole. You're technically with Joey now too.

We took our seats and the previews began, which was quickly followed by the movie.

* * *

As the lights came on and people began to walk out, you could see tears on every single girl from the audience. Some were still crying – including me.

"Gee Ella, if I knew you were going to cry throughout the whole movie I wouldn't have bought you. I'm so sorry." Joey apologized.

"It's the greatest movie of all time, I'm glad I could share it with you." I told Joey.

"If it's the greatest movie of all time, why did you cry during the good parts?" Joey asked.

"Because I know the ending! And it's not fair." I wailed, as we exited the theatre.

We both decided to go to the bathroom, and I fixed my make-up and wore more deodorant while I was in there.

"Ready to go?" Joey asked, and I nodded.

"Gee I'm hungry. We're going to the burger place that Tea works at. Golden rule is that you can't let anyone know she's still in school. The place has a stupid rule that says you have to be over 18 to work there." Joey explained to me.

* * *

"Sure." I replied, and we got into his car.

We walked in, and Joey spotted his sister and Tristan and I shyly followed.

"Serenity, this is my date Ella. Ella, this is my sister Serenity." Joey introduced.

"It's nice to meet you." I said to Serenity as I sat down.

"Yeah, you too." She smiled.

We all chatted for a while, and Tea appeared.

"Oh, Hey Ella." She smiled.

"Hey Tea." I smiled back.

We all ordered our meals. The guys seemed to order everything on the menu, while I only ordered a salad and a small fries.

* * *

We arrived at my house at about 11.00.

"Don't walk me to the door. My Dad's room is like right next to the door. It's probably better to say goodbye here." I said, as we sat inside his car.

"Okay. Thanks for the fun night Ella." Joey smiled, as he hugged me.

"Thanks for everything Joey." I said, as I planted a soft kiss on his lips.

During his shock, I smiled, said goodbye and exited his car. I smiled as I walked towards my door and got out my keys. That was the best first date I'd ever been on with a guy, and I felt like I was floating on clouds.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: I'm noticing a few mistakes (grammar mostly but a few plots or lines that don't make sense) that I'm tempted to fix as I upload this. But I'm keeping this the same as when I wrote it when I was seventeen (eight years ago) so I can re-write the whole thing down the track :)**


	8. Chapter 7

I awoke to nothing on Saturday morning. No alarm, no phone calls, no one waking me up. Even though it was only 9am, I felt refreshed not waking up to my annoying alarm (which I used a high pitch annoying tone to so I'd wake up faster)

My hair was oily as hell from the previous night, so I decided I would wash it. I took my time in the shower; I wanted to be 100% clean and prettied up for today's events.

Today's events were consisted of going to Duke's game shop, then apparently we were going to Gramps because he had offered to cook everyone afternoon tea, in celebration of the newest addition to the group – me. Apparently Yugi had something important to tell me as well.

I kept my pyjamas on while I straightened my hair, however I had a bra on to give myself support.

As soon as I packed my straightening iron away after straightening my hair, I heard a knock at the door.

It was only 10.30 – The gang weren't supposed to be arriving for another hour and a half. I went downstairs to answer it anyway, maybe it was them.

Instead I was met face to face by Seto Kaiba.

"If you're looking for my Dad, he's out." I said coldly to him.

"Actually, I've come here to see you." He said.

"Oh?" I asked.

"Can I come in?" He asked me.

"I guess it couldn't hurt." I replied, and moved away from the doorway.

I walked into the kitchen / dining area and he followed me in.

"I feel like some chai. Would you like some too?" I asked him.

"Sure, I guess." He said, feeling uncomfortable.

"You can take a seat." I told him, pointing to the dining room chairs.

"I would rather stay in the kitchen and talk to you." He said.

"Suit yourself." I said, adding the tea to the cups and boiling the water.

I squeezed some honey into the bottom of the cups and turned to face Kaiba.

"So why have you paid me a visit this morning?" I asked him.

"I wanted to apologise." Kaiba told me.

"So it finally clicked that I'm cheap labor for Kaiba corp. and that hiring and training new accountants is going to be quite a large expense?" I chuckled and he frowned.

"That's right, I see through you Kaiba. But continue on with your apology, who knows some good might come out of it." I grinned.

Wow, I actually have Seto Kaiba eating putty out of my hands?

"It's not just about the expenses my business is going to pay without you. Before Tuesday we were going to make those expenses anyway, it's not the extra few grand I'll be paying. I just couldn't sleep last night, knowing I'd hurt a girl. I hate being in debt to people – and I know an apology is the least I can do." Kaiba admitted.

"Why do you always prove me wrong?" I asked him, as the water boiled and I added the milk and water to the cups.

"How do you mean, that I prove you wrong?" Kaiba asked.

"I think I have you all worked out, but then you go and change my mind. You're cold hearted and rude one second, then the next you're apologetic and you seem like a kind person. Make up your mind." I joked, and smiled.

"You seem more of the one to spout out the crap of getting to know a person." Kaiba said.

"I guess." I said, and handed him his cup of tea.

"You're different too, you know." Kaiba said to me.

"How so?" I asked, taking a sip.

"You joined the friendship brigade. I thought you were immediately a lost cause from the company you kept. But then I get to know you, and you've got the perfect state of mind for the business career." Kaiba said to me.

"You do know why I quit, right?" I asked sarcastically. It was the spouting of this stupid stuff against my friends that made me quit yesterday.

"I know. But instead of criticizing your friendship choices, I want to protect you. " Kaiba said.

I'll let that comment slide. Or maybe all but the last part.

"What do you mean protect me?" I asked him.

"I'll be there to show you the light when you realize your friendship with those losers is disadvantaging you." Kaiba smirked.

"I don't see how my friendship with Yugi, Tea, Joey and Tristan will disadvantage me." I told Kaiba.

"What if it did though? Would you look at how you could stop that disadvantage?" Kaiba asked me.

"Yes, I suppose I would." I told him.

"And that's what's worth protecting." Kaiba smirked.

"So are you here to offer me a job at Kaiba corp. again or what?" I asked.

"A promotion, really. Karen, our old front secretary she was never doing her job properly and she gave the other employees a bit of grief so we fired her. Emma, my personal secretary recommended one of her friends for the job. However because she has children, she can't work Monday afternoons or Friday afternoons. I think that's a job worthwhile for you." Kaiba told me.

"What's happening with the accountants I was teaching?" I asked him.

"They're costing too much, I'm going to let them go. There's a major increase in expenses from retraining them, and the mistakes they're making could cost the company a lot of money too. It's cheaper just to hire new accountants and train them up." Kaiba told me.

"Okay, Kaiba. I'll accept your job offer, on two conditions." I told him.

"Name them." Kaiba stated.

"One. I'm perfectly fine with you not liking 'the friendship brigade' really I'm cool with it. These rivalries go back way past my time, and they do not involve me. Just don't bring it up around me. We have plenty to talk about, we don't need to discuss the people you don't like." I said to him.

"Point taken, I can agree to that." Kaiba replied.

"Two. I know you want to do well in school and all that, but can you like, not pretend I don't exist in maths? We don't have to talk a whole lot, it's just intimidating me, and I don't like it." I explained.

"I can try." Kaiba said.

"Okay. Then I accept your job offer." I said, and Kaiba jumped up.

"Now that we've got this all sorted out, I must attend other matters." Kaiba said, and I rolled my eyes.

Back to the Kaiba we're used to.

"Kay. Can I ask one question though? Why are you so interested...in me? You keep pulling me back, but there's probably a lot of girls or boys out there with the same mindset as me. You say you like my state of mind, but it's not a rare one. So why me?" I asked.

"Maybe you'll find out one day. But a businessman doesn't give away his plans for the future in case a competitor will grab it." Kaiba winked, and walked out.

I was kind of left flabbergasted. What would a competitor of Kaiba corp. want with me? I guess I was left eating putty out of HIS hands.

I quit my job with complete rage yesterday, and he turns up at my doorstep, I accept all of his offers and I'm on my toes waiting to talk to him next to see what other information I can get from him?

Damn Kaiba charm.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: If I ever re-write this story, I'm going to have re-name Ella. I now have a niece called Ella, and it's so weird! haha.**

 **PS .kitten - I agree. I'm actually not a fan of the jealousy myself now that I'm much older then when this was written. If you abandon the story at any point - no hard feelings and thanks for staying this long :) As stated numerous times this is an old story I'm re-posting so I'm immune to people not liking it.**


	9. Chapter 8

12.00pm came a short while after Kaiba left. I had gotten changed into a blue and white dress that hugged my hourglass figure perfectly – a belt was tightly fastened around my waist and the dress hugged my chest and hips, as well as nicely showing off my butt.

I wore the same white headband I wore on my first day of school, while wearing pastel coloured make-up.

All in all, I was pretty happy with my appearance.

I sprayed myself with a bit of Chanel no.5. As Marilyn Monroe said 'it's all I wear to bed' and it really does bring a guy to his knees. I spent ages saving up to be able to afford a bottle, and I was sure as hell going to use it.

I heard a honk from the driveway and I grabbed my bag and flew out the door.

Joey got out of the car to give me a hug, while Tea and Yugi were in the backseat.

"Wow, I've almost lost my breath, you look beautiful." Joey said, flabbergasted.

"Thank you." I said, and I noticed him breathing in my scent.

He attacked me with a rough kiss, and I could tell he was getting turned on.

Tea honked the horn angrily.

"Oh come on you two! This is ridiculous." She shouted, and I blushed and jumped into the passenger seat.

"Damn, you look hot girl." I said to Tea, seeing how different she when she wasn't in her school uniform.

"Could say the same to you, you're going to have every guy on his knees" Tea said, and Joey swerved, making us all lose balance.

"If any guy touches her, he'll have me ta deal with!" Joey shouted, and out of the corner of my eye I could see Yugi watching me as I rolled my eyes.

"Well I've already had one guy eat putty out of my hands today, and it wasn't Joey." I smirked. I was going to watch Joey squirm.

"Who?" he demanded.

"Long story. I'll tell you when we get to Duke's shop, so I can tell everyone at the same time." I replied.

"Can you tell us who it is then?" Joey asked.

"Ok, it was Kaiba." I told him.

"WHAT WAS KAIBA DOIN'?" Joey yelled, and we all screamed as he lost control of the car again.

"Joey, you have to calm down. Ella, stay quiet until we get there." Yugi reasoned.

"Fine." Joey and I replied, and the rest of the ride was silent.

Once we arrived at Duke's shop, we jumped out of the car straight away.

"Ella, can I talk to you for a minute?" Yugi asked me.

Tea and Joey shot him odd looks, but Joey made no comments. I guess the only other guy I was allowed to talk to was his best friend. Sometimes he'd make comments if I spoke to Tristan!

Yugi and I walked away from the group, and we ended up in a park, on a bench.

It was the first time I'd had a real good look of him today. He seemed, different. But I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"I can see that Joey's jealousy is really bugging you." Yugi told me.

"Yeah, it is." I sighed.

"He's my best friend, and it takes a lot of courage for me to tell you this, but maybe you should reconsider your relationship with him? Or at least have a word to him? You don't want to be miserable your whole relationship." Yugi explained.

"I know all of this. Trust me, I know." I frowned.

"Have you experienced this in the past?" Yugi asked.

"Yes, I have." I replied.

"Do you care to explain? If you don't want to, I understand. But I won't tell Joey – or anyone for that matter." Yugi said.

"Yeah, it would be good to have someone to talk to. But please understand, if I tell you all of this, you're the person I'm coming to from now on when I have a problem. Ok?" I asked him "There's no going back. You'll be the person who knows about my past and I don't want to have to explain it all again to someone else"

He smiled and nodded.

"My ex...he's the only boyfriend I've ever had. I've dated guys – like how I'm dating Joey now, but nothing ever progressed. My ex seemed like a nice guy, and he was at first. But suddenly he kept saying things to hurt me. He'd always compare me to other girls; always tell me how much he wanted other girls. 'Oh, see that chick across the road? Damn she's hot. I'd screw her so hard she'd be in hospital screaming my name' stuff like that." I started.

"That's horrible!" Yugi interrupted.

"I know. I really woke up to it when my slutty so called best friend pulled her top down for everyone to see and he ignored me to go flirt with her. Aaaanyway I tell him I'm not going to put up with that stuff, so he stops it. Alls good I suppose, but then he starts on his jealousy." I said.

"Guess he had nothing better to do now his horrible act was over, right?" Yugi asked.

"Right. I had a lot of guys chasing me at the time, and he felt so insecure. He was older than me, ugly and fat. So he'd always manipulate my mind into ceasing all contact with any guy that wasn't him. " I stated.

"Typical." Yugi spat.

"Ya. Well he found out I nearly left him for this other guy, and all hell broke lose. To cut it short his anger got the best of him so he began shoving me into walls, throwing me onto oncoming traffic, slapped me, hit me, would pretend to smash glass bottles within centre metres of my head. Horrible stuff like that."

Yugi gasped loudly.

"So what ended up happening? You left him, right?" Yugi asked.

"Wrong. I was an idiot. Well, naïve at least. He was seeking professional help at that time and was always apologetic and would be like 'yadda yadda yadda things will get better, I'm getting help, it's my condition not me." I replied.

"So how did you get away?" Yugi asked.

"Well, fortunately for me, slutty best friend and boyfriend went to the same party I went to, got drunk, and ended up into bed together. Yeah, I got cheated on, but she got the worst reputation in town, he went psycho, I went to the cops, and he got a suspended sentence. Sure he's not in jail, because of his 'condition' but if he does that shit to another poor unsuspecting girl, he's toast." I smirked.

"What happened to the friendship?" Yugi asked.

"Oh, it died. She murdered it. Even Tea, the friendship girl would probably admit that friendship deserved to die. You treat your friends with respect, and you'd do anything for a friend. If you want to steal your best friend's boyfriend then you're not a true friend." I said, and then realized what was happening.

I was rambling, and I was talking about the past. I vowed to let go of the past once I moved to Domino.

"Um, so yeah. I'm glad I got cheated on, because it broke the spell he had on me. He only wanted me to be a trophy girlfriend, I originally wanted him because I liked his personality, even if he wasn't very good looking." I explained.

"You must have a very kind heart if you really thought that way, and stayed with him just to help him." Yugi stated.

"Maybe. Idiocy too though." I said.

"Well, I can assure you that Joey would never go that far, he wouldn't cheat and he wouldn't hit you. But you've been tormented and scarred; you really should have a talk with him. You don't need to go through what you told me, but just tell him it's making you uncomfortable." Yugi said, grabbing my hands.

I kind of flinched at this; this was out of character for him. He quickly let go.

With all the bad memories flooding back, I let go of a few tears. It's so silly; this was all in the past. But I had so much trust in those two, I made them my everything and I was left with nothing.

"Hey, don't cry, you're too pretty for that." Yugi said, wiping my tears.

Once again, I kind of flinched. This was the sensitive guy's way of flirting. I felt uncomfortable all of a sudden, like I was with a stranger. After knowing Yugi all week, even if he was sensitive I don't think he'd come on as strongly as this. And he wouldn't come onto me at all! And I don't think he'd go behind Joey's back to have this conversation.

"You have a strong presence. I can feel this. You have the ability to move on and make new friends so easily, despite being hurt so greatly in the past. Your strength will be rewarded, I promise." Yugi said.

"Why do you seem so different? Even before this conversation it seemed you're...different. Your words and actions aren't those you would normally do. It just seems out of character, that's all." I described.

"You will find out in good time." Yugi replied.

"Argh!" I shouted in frustration, stamping my foot.

"What's wrong?" Yugi chuckled.

"I'm SO SICK of people telling me that! First Kaiba and now you!" I said.

"You'll find out later today. But now, we are to look at Duke's shop. The sooner we do, the sooner you will find out what's going on." Yugi said, and I got up straight away.

"Well, let's go then." I said.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: This story is a typical product of the 2000s (noughties/00s - not the actual century/millenium) Yu-Gi-Oh! fanfiction. Same plot they all had. New girl (normally from America), goes out with Joey first, ends up with Kaiba. At least I omitted lame kidnapping, and the girl saving Mokuba from bullies, ha ha. I haven't really read any YGO fanfics lately, I'm curious if they all still follow the same cliche and plot.**


	10. Chapter 9

"What did Yugi have to talk about?" Joey asked, once we re-entered Duke's shop.

"N-nothing." I stuttered, and Yugi gave me a look.

"Okay, it's something. Can we talk, in private?" I asked him.

"Yeah, sure." He said, slightly puzzled but we walked back outside.

I looked down at the ground, and sighed.

"What do you need to talk about?" Joey asked me.

"Um, your jealousy. It's a little off-putting, and it makes me really uncomfortable." I told him.

"What jealously?" Joey asked me.

'Whenever another guy is mentioned in another sentence with my name you get angry, pretty much. If I talk to another guy you threaten to beat him up. It's just kind of intimidating, that's all." I replied.

"Oh, that jealously." He confirmed.

"So um, yeah. That's all I needed to say." I shyly said, and went to walk back in but Joey grabbed me, softly.

"I'm sorry, Ella. I didn't mean to offend you or scare you. I'll back off from other guys, okay?" Joey apologised, his eyes looking sorry.

"It's okay Joey. I just wanted to let you know before more problems could come out of it." I smiled, and kissed his cheek.

"There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about too." Joey bought up.

"Yes?" I asked him.

"We've gone out on one semi-date and one official date. We've been at each other's sides all week. Is it too soon to ask you to be my girlfriend?" He asked me.

"Of course it's not!" I said, taking his hands in mine "Joey, I would love to be your girlfriend."

"You would, really?" He asked, and I nodded.

He jumped up, and started doing a happy dance, which made me giggle.

"Ella? Are you coming in or not?" Duke asked, walking out of his shop.

"Hey Duke." I said, giving him a hug, and I looked next to me.

I could see Joey was containing his jealousy, but he didn't say anything. He was showing improvement, and that's all I could ask for.

"What is the hold up?" he asked.

"Yugi needed to chat about something, and Joey asked me to be his girlfriend." I smiled.

"Congratulations." Duke remarked, and Joey grinned.

All in all, we spent about an hour in Duke's shop. He showed us around, and he showed us the arenas for his game – Dungeon dice monsters. He said he was trying to get it off the ground but there were a few players of his game. His shop was pretty cool, but I still liked Gramp's shop better. Duke's was more modern, whilst Gramp's was traditional and had a better charm to it.

Everyone was pleased about mine and Joey's new relationship, with most uttering "finally!"

Yugi gave us both thumbs up, I think he was pleased. After our chat he went back to his usual self, so I just assumed his 'changing' was nothing.

All of us but Duke decided to go back to Gramp's shop for afternoon tea. Duke said he had his shop to run. Because Tristan arrived on his motorbike, he said he'd go and pick up Serenity, which turned into a hilarious fight with Joey.

Joey argued that his mother had bought the car for Serenity, so he'd go and get her, but Tristan drove off on his motorbike. Whatta rebel!

At no time and all Joey pulled up to Yugi's house. We all walked in and greeted Gramps, who said he would be closing the shop soon to start afternoon tea. Because of this we all trudged up the stairs and into Yugi's room.

"Should we tell her now?" Yugi asked the group, and everyone nodded.

"Boy, don't I feel like an outsider." I nervously laughed.

"Ella, before we tell you what we're going to, we have to make sure you won't block everything we tell you. So one simple question, do you believe in the supernatural?" Yugi asked.

"Like ghosts and magic and all of that? Um, I kind of do. I can't say I'm a firm believer, but every time something gets proven, I don't try and dispute it with science. When I see, I believe." I stated.

Yugi smiled, who looked at the others and nodded.

"Okay, see the thing around my neck, the millennium puzzle?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah, why?" I replied.

"What if I were to tell you a 5,000 year old pharaoh lives in there, and shares my body when he needs it?" Yugi asked.

"I'd tell you 'yeah nice joke guys, but I'm not falling for that one'" I smirked.

"What if I was somehow able to prove it to you? For real." Yugi told me.

"As I said earlier, if it's proven to me, I'd believe you." I smiled.

"Here's your proof." Yugi said.

What happened next was the most extraordinary thing I had seen in my life. His puzzle started glowing, it made some noise, and a burst of light appeared. After the light faded, a person who resembled Yugi appeared, except he was taller, his eyes weren't as innocent, and he had more blonde streaks in his hair.

"You're the one I was talking to earlier. This is what you meant by I'd find out later." I stated.

"Correct Ella." The person told me.

"I'm sorry I didn't realize earlier. How rude of me, gosh I must look so stupid for not realizing." I said, blushing.

"Don't worry Ella, we knew Yugi for such a long time before we knew there was a difference between Yami and Yugi." Tea informed me.

"So Yami is your name? Well, it's nice to meet you Yami. I'm Ella." I said, taking his hand and shaking it.

* * *

 **Fact of the day: I think this is the shortest chapter of the series - coming in at a measly 948 words. These days on my new stories (on another account) I refuse to post an update unless it's a minimum 3,000 words. Second fact of the day: tomorrow's fact will feature Yami/The Pharaoh I wanted to save until tomorrow, yay!**


	11. Chapter 10

**Alright, I'm going to bite the bullet and finally re-post this entire story. I'm in the works of a ten year anniversary story which I've written 2 chapters for, I can't release it until I finish re-posting this story. I recently re-read this story and it made me cringe, but I did feel a bit better that it gets slightly better as it goes along.**

* * *

Monday came around all too quickly for my liking. I spent most of Saturday night at Yugi's house, Yami seemed really nice. I kind of felt guilty for getting so creeped out by his closeness during our talk about Joey. He seems to care about his friends, and that's all he was probably doing.

Gramps' afternoon tea was delicious. He made some sandwiches, baked some scones, and a cake. He even made his own whipped cream and bought some jam from the marketplace. It was delicious! We all ate so much we didn't eat dinner that night, but we stayed there late and munched on some popcorn whilst we watched movies.

I stayed over at Yugi's that night with Tristan. Tea had a curfew, and Joey didn't want Serenity to be driven on Tristan's motorbike in the dark. He was very apologetic, but I understood.

We didn't stay up for that long after the others left, Yugi had promised his grandpa he would look after the shop for a couple of hours on Sunday while his grandpa went to the market and ran some other errands.

On Sunday I helped Yugi for a while looking after the shop, but then I had to go home and do homework. Talk about a drainer...

And then, Monday arrived. Back to reality.

Mr. Teresy, our homeroom teacher didn't even end up showing up, so Kathryn and I sat on top of the table opposite where Yugi and Tea were seated.

"Hey Ella, you never told us what happened with Kaiba on Saturday morning." Yugi said.

"Kaiba? As in Seto Kaiba? Something happened?" Kathryn asked, blinking

"Yeah, Ella worked for that jerk face for about a day and then quit. So what happened on Saturday morning?" Tea asked.

"He came to my doorstep and begged me to work for him – as a secretary. He was almost on his knees, it was funny. I accepted, I felt sorry for the poor guy." I slightly lied.

Whilst I did have that effect on him, I was the one with that effect at the end of the conversation. But like I'd say that to a bunch of Kaiba haters.

"Wow. He has a soul." Kathryn joked.

"Yeah, that is a little out of character for Kaiba. I wonder what his intentions are." Yugi said, thinking.

"That's what I thought. I asked, but he said he wouldn't tell me why. He was like 'a businessman doesn't give away his secrets in case a competitor comes along' or something, but I'm an unskilled worker, no competitor would try and grab me. He was trying to throw me off. Oh well, his brain is too complicated. If we could work this out we would be able to work out why he's such a jerk." I said, and Tea burst out laughing.

"Anyway, we still have like 10 minutes of homeroom and Teresy isn't going to show up, I'm out." I said, and walked into the hallway.

I ducked into Joey's homeroom. His homeroom teacher was a teacher named Mrs. Fuller. She was a friendly art teacher, and pretty much let students get away with anything. All across the classroom I saw students with phones out and eating things.

"Hey babe." I said, hugging Joey from behind and kissing him.

"Hey Joey, who's your friend?" Mrs. Fuller asked, coming over to make conversation.

"Hi, I'm Ella. Mr. Teresy didn't show up for homeroom, so I'm hanging here." I shrugged, and she laughed.

"Well as long as he doesn't show up, I don't care if you come in here." She said, and she went to talk to other students.

"Wow, she's cool." I said

* * *

I waltzed into maths class about 10 minutes late. I knew how to suck up though. I pretended to nervously knock on the door.

"Miss, I'm very sorry I'm late. I'd be happy to tell you why, but it's kind of private and I don't want to interrupt the lesson." I said to her.

She said nothing as she motioned for me to go into the hallway with her.

"Tell me here." She said.

"Look, I know this is an excuse all girls use. But I got my period on the way to school, and I didn't realise until the end of homeroom. Luckily one of my friends had an overnight bag from the night before and lent me this skirt, so I had to go to the bathroom and insert a tampon and change into this skirt. I know you may not believe me, but that's the truth." I said, sounding sincere.

"That's okay Ella, there's no way you could have prepared for that. I only outlined today's lesson, I wrote it all on the board so you can easily follow that. Thank you for not interrupting the lesson." The teacher said, and I walked back in and sat next to Kaiba.

"Whatever you said, you're certainly a good liar. I don't think the teacher would be that pleased at knowing you were sucking the face off Wheeler." Kaiba snarled.

I stayed silent.

"I thought you said you would change things if your friends were disadvantaging you." Kaiba said to me.

Damn, he kind of has a point.

I sighed.

"You're right, I'll just not make out with Joey during class time anymore." I smirked, and he frowned.

I didn't say the answer he wanted to hear.

"So it's Monday night. Are you coming to work tonight?" He asked me.

"Of course I am. Will I be meeting you at the gate?" I asked him.

"Yes, you will." Kaiba said, and then went onto his work.

He kept his promise at least.

* * *

The end of the day took a while to come around, but it did.

I heard the rest of the gang make plans to go to the arcade ('the gang' consisting of Joey, Tea, Tristan, Yugi and Bakura) but went silent when I arrived at my locker.

"It's okay guys. You don't have to stay silent around me because I have to work tonight." I told them.

"Is it jealousy if I wish you could ditch work just so you don't have to work for that creep Kaiba?" Joey asked me.

"No." I replied.

"Can't you just skip work? Tell Kaiba you got your period or some other girlie problem." Joey grinned.

"Wheeler, she's already used that excuse today." Kaiba said coldly, as he approached the group.

The entire group just sent him dirty looks for being in our presence.

"Ella, are you coming?" Kaiba asked.

"Yeah, just hang on." I said, grabbing all my books and putting them in my bag.

"Bye." I said to everyone, and hugged them all.

However, as I went to hug and kiss Joey, Kaiba pulled me away. Joey got really mad, and followed us down the hallway.

"Keep your hands off my girl you creep!" Joey protested, and Kaiba ignored him as he continued to drag me down the hallway.

I shot Joey a look to say 'don't worry' but he either didn't notice or didn't care.

"Hey, I'm talkin' to you!" Joey shouted.

"All I can hear is 'yap yap yap' from a mutt." Kaiba said, finally breaking his silence.

Joey then went to take a swing, but Kaiba grabbed his fists mid punch.

"You know I'm capable of much more, Wheeler. But I don't want to be expelled from school for the likes of you." Kaiba sneered, and dragged me off.

"Bye Joey." I called out, shrugged and blew him a kiss.

Kaiba didn't let me go until we were in his limousine. Unlike last time, he forced me to sit next to him and not opposite of him.

Although I didn't want Joey to pursue anything, I was still mad at Kaiba for dragging me off against my will and cutting my goodbyes short, and not being able to say goodbye to my boyfriend properly.

"You will be with me today, just so you can get a grip on things." Kaiba explained.

"Lucky me." I said sarcastically.

"You might want to be careful of what you say. If you play the right cards you could become part of the company's elite and be invited to the special events. However, if you play the wrong cards-" Kaiba started, and I cut him off.

"I didn't accept your job offer to build a career, Seto Kaiba. I accepted your job offer to look good on my resume, and as a part time job," I told him "I couldn't imagine working long-term with you as my boss.

"You're bluffing." He smirked, and I got angry.

Why isn't he angry at my statement? Why is he saying I'm bluffing? Why am I angry? Argh!

"Do explain." I said, trying to remain calm on the outside.

"Admit it, Ella. You need me. Maybe not in the romantic sense, but you need me to protect you. You need me to show you the life you need. You need me to steer you away from mistakes. You need me Ella Campbell." Kaiba smirked.

"I need to BARF MORE LIKE IT." I replied, and he kept on smirking.

"Let's recap our little adventures together. I arrive at your company a little under a week ago to see my Dad. You offer me a job. I quit on my first day. You come to my doorstep the next day offering me a higher role. If I'm not mistaken Mr. Kaiba, it seems you're the one who needs me." I said, mirroring his smirk.

He frowned.

"It seems that way now, yes. But trust me Ella, one day you will come to your senses." Kaiba said.

I decided to stay quiet. There was no way to reason with this guy! I obviously wasn't going to change his mind and he wasn't going to change mine, so I'd rather just ignore the idiot.


	12. Chapter 11

"Wait, you actually expect me to DO WORK?" I joked, as we entered Kaiba's office and he asked me to shred some files.

"What did you expect?" He chuckled.

"Aren't I supposed to run around buying your lunch and coffee, and then complain at the water cooler about how much of a jerk you are, and how underpaid I am and how I'm going to make it into the big leagues?" I told him.

"Actually, that's my job." Emma, Kaiba's PA said coming into the office.

"Marketing want your opinion on some new designs they have for a new advertising campaign. Do you want me to send them up, or do you want to go down?" Emma asked Kaiba.

"They never get enough work done as it is, if I let them leave their offices they'll just take their sweet time to come up here. No, I'll go down." Kaiba said, then turned to me.

"You're to continue shredding the documents I gave you. " Kaiba said to me, and swiftly walked out the door.

As soon as he walked out the door, I turned off the shredder and jumped into his chair. It was comfortable.

"YOU FIRED, NOOB." I said, swinging around and then noticing Kaiba's desk.

His desk was a regular CEO's desk. He had a massive unsorted 'in' pile, a small 'out' pile, assorted ornaments (he had a small statute of the blue eyes, white dragon) and other little office things like calculators and pens. He also had a picture of a small boy. Yugi told me the only person that Kaiba cared about was his little brother; I figured this must be his little brother.

I heard footsteps approaching, so I jumped out of the chair and went back to the shredder.

"Shredding, shredding, shredding." I said loudly, as the shredder ate up all the paper within in.

The same boy from the picture walked into the office.

"Are you looking for Kaiba?" I asked him.

"No. I saw him on his way to marketing. He told me to come into here and keep an eye on you. So you're the famous Ella, eh?" The kid asked.

"Famous" I asked, blinking in confusion.

"I wish I could tell you, but I've been sworn to secrecy." The kid replied.

Oh god, another 'you'll find out in due time' secrets. I'm not even going to push this further.

"Anyway, I'm Mokuba. Seto's little brother. And you're Ella Campbell?" He asked.

"Yeah, I am. It's nice to meet you." Mokuba smiled.

Kaiba came storming into his office, and took a seat at his chair.

"I need to go do something..." Mokuba said nervously, and basically ran out.

"Things not go as planned?" I asked him, and he looked up and glared me.

"Marketing department are a bunch of failures. Accounting department were a bunch of failures and now we have half a department. HR is only reporting bad news. My financial departments are making me work overtime." Kaiba said, sitting his chair heavily.

"Why are marketing failures?" I asked.

"Because ever since I lost my title as world champion, and Yugi beat me, marketing attempts seem to be fruitless. There were some mildly successful advertising campaigns, but the company's popularity won't budge anymore." Kaiba explained.

"Hmm...Instead of making YOU the company's image, why don't you shift it for a while? You seem to love blue eyes, when people think of the blue eyes, white dragon they imagine you, and you only. It's already practically the company's image. In your new marketing campaigns have a blue eyes instead of yourself, and then maybe sometime in the future shift it back to you." I told him.

"That works in theory, Ella. But do you think it would work in practice?" Kaiba asked

"Why wouldn't it? I'm not talking about having some cheesy talking mascot or anything. Just, in a marketing campaign like an advertisement every time YOU would make an appearance, let there be a blue eyes instead. Or if you don't appear, let the blue eyes appear. Everyone knows how powerful that card is, people will start associating you with power again." I said to him.

He stayed silent for a few minutes, and then pressed the button for the intercom to Emma.

"Emma, call up Thomas from marketing, I think there's something he needs to hear."

* * *

"That's a great idea Miss Campbell! I'll run down to marketing this instant and we can begin straight away!" This 'Thomas' said and quickly left the office.

"See, Mr. Kaiba. When you talk about your problems with someone else, they get fixed. Sometimes it's someone else's ideas that you need." I smiled.

He stayed silent.

"Your marketing department for example. They're not dumb; they've gotten the right education for the job and the right training. However they've created so many campaigns and had racked out their brains for the new one, the most obvious answer was one they could not find." I explained.

"I hope you're right, Ella. I'd hate to think I'd need to get rid of my entire marketing department too." Kaiba replied.

"Well, it's 5.30. End of my shift. Even though I didn't do anything remotely secretarial…" I trailed off.

"What if I was to, give you another promotion?" Kaiba asked.

"Depends what the promotion is." I said, rising my eyebrow.

"It's obvious that using you as a resource for a secretarial role isn't efficient. Therefore the best way for me to use my resources efficiently would be for you to work in the company as an overall asset." Kaiba told me.

"Do you mean work in a different department every time I work?" I asked him.

"Yes. Some days you might be fetching coffee for me and complaining at the water cooler, other days you might be working in marketing, accounting and who knows, maybe some days we'll need you in the technological departments." Kaiba explained.

"Who needs who now?" I joked, and Kaiba smiled.

Wait, what?

It's not a smirk. It's not a half smile. It's not a chuckle. It's a smile. A genuine smile.

"I can agree to that. Well, I guess it's time for me to go. Kaiba, look. If you needed to talk about work stuff, you must have so many private life things you need to discuss. If you ever need someone to talk to, I'm here. It's always nice to have someone who will listen to you." I said, and briskly walked out before he could say a cold comeback.

* * *

On my way walking home, I walked past the GAME shop (it's on the way home) and I saw Yugi sitting outside, on the ground against a brick wall staring off into space.

"Are you okay?" I asked, sitting next to him.

"I don't know." He replied.

"Well, penny for your thoughts?" I asked, and he smiled.

"Just, trouble seems to find both Atem and myself a lot, and I know it's no coincidence. It's bound to happen sometime soon, and I spend all my time waiting for it to happen." Yugi sighed.

"Now that you're my person I talk to, I'm here to listen to you. If I offer that to Kaiba, I'm going to offer it for you. " I told Yugi.

"Okay, but Yami wants to talk to you." Yugi said, and did his little transformation.

"Do you want to go get milkshakes and discuss this?" I asked him.

"Milkshakes?" Yami asked, confused.

"Do you know what one is?" I asked him.

"Yes, I do. But I'm just wondering, why milkshakes? That is a little random is it not?" Yami asked, as we started walking to the nearest café.

"Well my milkshake brings all the boys to the yard." I smirked.

"I bet they do." Yami laughed, but his eyes did trail to my chest.

I went red with embarrassment, but attempted to laugh it off before I changed the subject.


	13. Chapter 12

Our usual gang consisting of Tea, Yugi, Tristan, Joey and myself were once again, spending Saturday afternoon at Yugi's house. However unlike last weekend, we were bored and had no ideas what to do. We'd already gone to the arcade, spoken to Yugi's grandfather and went out for lunch.

"I know what we can do." I said, shooting up (I was lying on Yugi's bed)

"What?" Tristan asked.

"Complain about how bored we are." I grinned, and everyone just sighed.

"Hey, Yami gave me an idea." Yugi said.

"Yeah?" I asked.

"You haven't seen KaibaLand yet have you?" Yugi asked.

"What the hell is KaibaLand?" I asked Yugi.

"Kaiba created a duel themed theme park, and knowing how conceited he is, he named it after himself." Tea explained.

"Figures." I mumbled, after the conversation I had with him on Monday where he seemed a bit puzzled about not including himself on the advertisements.

"So what do you think Ella? Sound like an idea?" Yugi asked.

"Yeah it'd be worth it to check it out." I replied, and we all bounded down Yugi's stairs and jumped into Joey's car.

"At least another one of us needs our license." I stated, as we all arrived at Joey's car.

"Well I do have a license." Tristan proudly stated.

"Okay, another one of us needs a car, and a car license." I corrected myself.

"Shotgun!" Tristan shouts, and waits outside the passenger side.

"Not cool man! My lady rides up front with me!" Joey argued.

"No fair man, Ella's tiny, as is Yugi and Tea. If I sat at the back it'd be squashed!" Tristan protested.

"Yeah Joey it's okay, I don't mind." I smiled.

"But Ella!" Joey whined.

"We'll be back in a sec." I said to the rest of the group, winked and lead Joey off.

"Trust me babe, I need to get to know the back seat and suss it out, if you get my drift." I said, and shot him a wink.

He sheepishly grinned, and nodded.

We arrived back to the group.

"Problem sorted. Guys, so predictable." I said, mostly to Tea rolling my eyes and she giggled.

* * *

"The entrance fee is $7.50 each." The person at the ticket booth falsely smiled.

"Oh you poor thing, you must have gone through so much crap." I said to him, and he nodded.

As I was talking to him, I noticed a sign inside the ticket booth that stated that Kaiba Corp. employees get entrance for free.

"Hey, according to that sign, Kaiba Corp. employees don't have to pay the fee?" I asked the ticket booth person.

"Yeah, all they have to do is show their security card. None of them ever come here though, what do a bunch of suits need to go for a theme park for?" The guy replied.

"This security card?" I asked, showing it to him.

The security cards were programmed with what your role was in Kaiba Corp and where you got access. However it was programmed with when you worked, so you couldn't use it outside of hours. It was to stop people from breaking in, I thought it was a good idea. I had an all access security card, however it only worked from 3pm – 6pm Mondays and Fridays.

"Wow, you actually work inside Kaiba Corp and not in KaibaLand? That's pretty impressive. Well, the lady gets the $7.50 entrance fee waived, but the rest of you have to cough up." The guy said, and I glared at him.

How dare he be nice to me, but in turn be nasty to my friends.

Everyone paid, and we went in.

"So, what is there to do?" I asked curiously.

"There's a few rides, there's an arcade, a café, there's dueling arenas, and there's a few things to do. We don't come here a lot, but sometimes it's interesting to see the duels." Yugi told me.

"I've been here for 2 weeks nearly 3 and I haven't seen any duel monsters matches. Weird huh?" I replied.

"Alright, we'll go watch a duel then." Yugi smiled.

* * *

We watched about three duels all up. Although there weren't any 'big names' in the arena, it was amazing to see the cards bought to life in the massive holograms and it made it an interesting game to watch.

As we walked out of the spectator seats, Mokuba approached us.

"Oh hi Yugi, Joey, Tea, Tristan and Ella." Mokuba smiled.

"Oh, so you've been acquainted with Ella?" Joey asked.

"Yeah! She works for Seto!" Mokuba said in an excited tone.

"How are you today, Mokuba?" Yugi asked Mokuba.

"I'm okay I guess, nothing interesting is happening today." Mokuba explained.

His gaze turned onto Joey and I, Joey was whispering something my ear and I was giggling, and we were holding hands. In short, we were being very affectionate and couple-y.

"How long have you two been together?" Mokuba smirked.

"A week today officially," I smiled "but we had a thing since my first day in Domino"

"Oh." Mokuba replied, in a flat tone.

"Why?" I asked, finding his reaction kind of strange.

"It's just Se-nothing. I thought Seto would have said something." Mokuba replied uncomfortably, and quickly changed the topic.

We chatted with him for a while, until he had to go back to managing the duel arenas.

We then decided to start checking out some of the rides, and our group decided to split. Obviously Tea, Tristan and Yugi were in one group, and Joey and I were in our own.

Even though there were no 'couple' rides (This theme park was designed by Seto Kaiba after all – billionaire jerk virgin) I think we preferred that it wasn't too cheesy, and we had fun on the rides that existed anyway.

As it approached 5pm, when we said we'd all meet back up at the entrance and decide what to do next, I told Joey I needed to use the bathroom and left him waiting at the arcade.

Unfortunately there we no bathrooms in the arcade area, and I had to walk outside to use it. After I finished and I had 'freshened up' I walked back outside to walk back to the arcade. I was, however interrupted by a guy who looked a little older than me.

"Hey baby, where are you going?" He asked, putting his arm around me.

"Um, back to my boyfriend." I said, removing his arm.

"What's the rush? You're hot." He grinned, and grabbed my butt.

"Hey!" I shouted loudly.

"You loved it. You're wearing a short little skirt, a tight t-shirt to show off your body. This is what you want." The guy said, getting a little angry.

"I'm wearing a short skirt due to the hot weather, and my t-shirt appears tight because I have difficulty buying shirts due to my chest size you god damned jerk!" I shouted at him.

This topic always really seemed to hit a weak spot.

He pushed me against a wall, and began to stroke my face.

How is this happening in broad daylight?

I began to scream at the top of my lungs, there were plenty of people around to save me, right? Wrong. Most people had cleared out, as the park was closed from between 5pm – 7pm for 'maintenance' to see if everything is working correctly, before it reopens for the evening session.

I closed my eyes before his lips touched mine, but I felt air move and a pressure being relieved off me and I opened my eyes and could not believe the sight in front of me.

Seto Kaiba had arrived just in time, and had pushed the guy off me and was holding him onto the ground.

Wow, he's...really strong.

He grabbed a radio out of his pocket, and asked for security. Within 30 seconds, security had arrived.

"This man here sexually harassed and assaulted this girl. We have video surveillance. I want you to deal with this while I deal with something else." Kaiba said to his goons, who nodded and carted the guy off, who was now crying.

I stayed silent as Kaiba grabbed my arm and carted me off, I was in shock and I was nervous Kaiba looked REALLY mad.

He carted me off to the arcade, where Joey was playing a game.

"WHEELER!" Kaiba bellowed, which made Joey fall over.

"What do you want Kaiba?" Joey asked, and looked at Kaiba's angry face and mine, which probably resembled fear.

"You are NOT to leave this girl alone in a public spot. EVER." Kaiba shouted at Joey.

"Wait, wait, wait. What? Joey did nothing wrong. I asked to go to the toilet, is he meant to follow me in there?" I sniggered, but Kaiba ignored me.

"Why? What happened?" Joey asked, looking worried.

"Ella just got sexually assaulted." Kaiba replied, and Joey suddenly went pale.

"O-oh god Ella. I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry!" Joey cried, and tried to hug me but Kaiba pulled me back.

"Hey! Leave me alone!" I shouted to Kaiba, and tried to get out of his grip but he held on tighter.

"You're to take better care of her." Kaiba said, and finally let go of me.

"If you were mine, I'd protect you a lot better." Kaiba said in my ear, and briskly walked away.

This reaction confused me greatly. Could Seto Kaiba possibly have a crush on me?


	14. Chapter 13

When Joey and I met back with the group, we didn't mention about what just happened with Kaiba and the creep. I didn't mention what Kaiba had said to me to Joey, I just decided to ignore what happened. If I told Joey, Joey would become enraged and I didn't want to start drama.

When we all met up, we decided to go to a restaurant named "Super Pepper" it was apparently an all you can eat restaurant, Joey and Tristan's pick. Tea seemed disgusted by the idea, and Yugi seemed pretty apathetic but we all piled into Joey's car and off we went.

* * *

After Joey and Tristan had gone through about 10 plates piled high with greasy pizza, pasta, noodles and other assorted foods, the attention was bought back to me who had only had 2 plates filled with mostly salads. Even Tea had some pizza and pasta.

"Hey babe, what gives, you'll fill up on salad" Joey asked me.

"After eating all those hamburgers and fast food lately, I feel I need to cleanse my insides." I replied, crunching on a piece of lettuce.

"Bah! Rabbit food!" Tristan replied, disgusted.

"Ella, you don't need to starve yourself. You're nice and thin." Tea commented.

"I know...it's not about putting on weight. It's about giving my body the right food." I retorted.

Whilst I was concerned about my body size, why is it so hard to eat right and exercise without people screaming 'you have an eating disorder' at you? I get it that eating disorders are a big issue, but by me wanting to eat right and exercise you're taking attention from those who really need it..

Yugi gave me a look, and I knew that sometime tonight he'd be having a talk with me.

"Actually. I feel like pizza and pasta now. Then I think I'll grab a lot of dessert." I fake smiled, and went up to the pizza bar.

"Me too." Yugi said, and quickly got up.

"Follow me." He said, and led me down a corridor, just outside the kitchen.

"I know you don't have an eating disorder, but I could sense some discomfort. What's up?" Yugi asked me.

"Nothing, I have no idea what you're talking about." I lied.

"Ella." He grumbled, and he let Yami take over him.

"Ella, it's okay," Yami said, placing a hand on my shoulder "you said if I listened to your problem the other day, it would be too late to turn back. Well now it's too late, and you promised to let me listen to you."

"Okay fine, but there's a few things." I sighed.

"Yes?" Yami asked.

"If I promise to tell you, will you not make any judgment calls? Or even say anything? I just want to tell you, and then I want to go back to the others. Okay?" I asked and he nodded.

"Okay. One, I used to be overweight. I was a very chubby kid, borderline obese. I weighed more as an 11 year old than I do as a 17 year old. I can wear my clothes from childhood, and they hang off me." I said.

"Wow, I wouldn't have known." Yami stated.

"Yeah, I know. No one ever believes me when I tell them that. Because I was a chubby kid, I got picked on, heavily. To this day I'm still suffering from posttraumatic stress, but that's a story for another day. And lastly, it's about my ex boyfriend. The one I told you about." I gulped.

"What else did he do?" Yami gasped.

"He called me fat and chubby on a few occasions. This was not too long after I lost my childhood waist, so I was still fairly delicate and fragile. I would ask him if I looked fat, and he would reply with 'yes' or 'the fat is mostly just around the middle" or "you're not fat, you are chubby though, hm...' he even did it in front of my friends." I said.

"It seems to me he was the one insecure about your relationship and said nasty things so you would feel under confident and stay with him." Yami told me.

"Hey! I said not to say anything. But yes, I know you're right" I sighed

* * *

After dinner, we all went our separate ways. Yugi said he had chores to do at home, Tea said she had homework to do and Tristan said he wanted to see Serenity. Joey and I stayed together; we went around cruisin' the neighbourhood in his car.

I took the time he was driving around to really stare at him. I thought his messy blonde hair was cute (I had a major fetish for messy hair) as were his brown eyes. His Brooklyn accent reminded me a little of home, and I found it strangely comforting, even if I was from the opposite side of the country.

"Joey, can you pull over?" I asked him,

"Sure, I can. Why?" Joey asked.

"Well, remember what I suggested before at KaibaLand? The backseat..." I said trailing off, and he instantly got the gist.

We stayed silent as Joey drove to the destination he had in mind. After 5 minutes we ended up at a secluded destination.

I nervously undid my seatbelt and opened the door and jumped into the backseat. I was nervous because I didn't know where I wanted to go with this. I was only joking back at KaibaLand, but I did want a little physical action with Joey though, even if it was 100% non sexual.

Joey cheekily grinned as he jumped into the backseat with me. He adjusted the backseat and made the backs of the seats fall down, so we had more room.

"I don't want you to feel pressured, okay? So if I take things too far, say stop." Joey said.

"Should we have a safety word?" I asked him.

"Yeah, okay. What?" He replied.

"Um, I don't think the word 'chess' would come up. How about that?" I asked.

"Mmm okay." Joey replied, and roughly pushed me down onto the fallen seats and began to make-out with me.

His kisses went from my mouth, to my neck, and then to my mouth again, using his tongue.

"Joey." I panted through kisses.

"Mmm yeah Ella?" He asked.

"Do you think we haven't been going out for long enough to be doing this?" I asked him.

"I think it's okay, we've been going out for a few weeks now, and whatever happens nothing will be your first right?" Joey asked, shifting himself and sitting up.

"No, it won't be." I confirmed, copying his actions

"Okay. Well we've been going out for a few weeks; it won't be my first time or yours, for whatever happens even if we don't go all the way. I don't see us breaking up anytime soon, so it's not like it's just a fling. We both care about each other, so I don't think it's too soon." Joey replied.

"Yeah, you're right." I said, jumping onto him with kisses.

I don't think the word 'chess' would be coming up tonight.


	15. Chapter 14

Once again, Monday came around too quickly for my liking. On Sunday I met up with Joey for a short time in the afternoon, but only for a short time as we both had homework to do.  
Once again, the walk to school was fairly uneventful. I was running a little late, so I ate my piece of toast on the walk to school, with my iPod blaring in my ears.

When I walked into the school gates, I was surprised to see Kaiba standing there. I began to casually walk past, still a bit disgusted by his behaviour at KaibaLand. He tugged on the back of my pink blazer, and pulled me back to him.

"Ella, what size are you?" Kaiba asked.

"Excuse me?" I coughed, with disbelief and shock.

"Clothes size, not bra size." He rolled his eyes.

"That's a bit random, and private." I replied.

"I guess, but I need to know it for tonight. Tonight there's going to be a meeting, and I need you to be there. However you need to be wearing corporate clothes. I need to know your clothing size so I can get someone to buy a suit for you." Kaiba growled.

"Oh, right. I'm an American size 6 for numeral sizes, and a 'small' for marked sizes." I replied.

"That's all I needed to know." He said with a very annoyed tone, and walked off briskly.

Phew, Kaiba's gone back to his cold 'I don't care' self. Good. I hate to say it, but I prefer him that way.

I went to my locker, and dumped my bag and grabbed my books for my first class – Double Maths. What a drainer, having double maths the first thing on a Monday morning. I don't know why Garfield complains – he ain't got nothin' on me.

However, I did notice that none of my friends were at their lockers. Hm, that was strange. The whole gang was usually assembled here until the first homeroom bell rang, and we all went to homeroom.

I decided to stop off at the toilet and drink fountain before going off to homeroom, considering I had time.

When I walked into homeroom, I saw Tea and Yugi sitting in there already. When I walked in, they both hushed of the topic they were discussing, and sent me nervous smiles.

"Is something strange going on?" I asked them.

"Well you see..." Tea started, but Kathryn came bounding into homeroom.

"Ooooh! Ellaaaaa! I heard about you and Joey on Saturday night!" She said, and made a circle with her thumb and pointer finger on one hand, and inserted her other pointer finger into the circle.

I felt the bottom of my stomach drop, and my face heat up like it had never been embarrassed before.

"H-how did you find out?" I stuttered.

"I heard it from Derrick." She shrugged.

"Who's Derrick?" I asked, I didn't even know who he was.

"Look, Ella. If you're wondering if Joey told people, he didn't. Apparently some guys saw you in a secluded area and assumed you were only there for one thing. I don't know if you guys did or not, but whatever you both say I will believe." Tea said.

I looked at Yugi, who was staring at the floor and remaining quiet.

I kept blushing, and stared down at my maths homework.

"Her and Joey so did it!" Kathryn laughed, and patted me on the back "you go girl! You're getting some! That's more than I can say"

I wish that I copped the worse from Kathryn. But as soon as the second homeroom bell rang and all the guys piled in, it got worse from there. Every one of them made a comment, and wouldn't leave me alone. What's worse was that the homeroom teacher DID show up, so I couldn't leave.

In the last few minutes of homeroom, I saw the door open and Joey walked in. All the guys cheered, and patted him on the back as he made his way to me.

"I swear I didn't tell anyone!" Joey defended.

"So I've heard." I mumbled, I was going to give him the benefit of the doubt but I wasn't going to rule him out just yet.

"Really, I didn't. This guy, his name is Brendon or something, his house is near the secluded area we went to, and uh, he apparently saw us drive there and assumed what we were going there for." Joey said.

"That is kind of believable," I admitted.

"Seriously, if you ask any person where they heard it from, it'll be from someone I don't even talk to. I don't talk to Brendon; I don't talk to anyone who's gossiping about it. If I told someone, don't you think it would have been the people in our gang?" Joey said.

"You do have a point. Sorry I kind of doubted you." I smiled, and gave him a hug.

All the guys whistled, and we broke apart and I blushed once again.

The first class bell rang, and everyone piled out.

As I was walking down the halls, some people stared; others said something to the person they were walking with and some people did call out. It was so embarrassing!

Back home in America, no one really cared who was sleeping with who, as long as it was not a 'scandal' like someone was sleeping with another person's boyfriend, or if there was a big age gap. I don't get why people care about Joey and I, neither one of us are popular so why does it matter?

As I walked into my maths class, I felt so relieved for once that my class was filled with unfriendly nerds. No one looked at me or whispered anything. They probably hadn't even heard, and if they did they didn't care.

However, when I sat myself next to Kaiba, he gave me the biggest death glare. I knew he wasn't a gossiper himself, but he overheard when people thought Duke and I were together, maybe he had overheard people talking about this.

"I'll be talking to you later. I can't let the rage take over me now as I have a class to take." Kaiba growled.

He had overheard.

* * *

After my 4th class it was lunchtime, and as I was walking to my locker to dump my books and grab my lunch, I got pulled into an empty classroom.

"What do you want?" I hissed at Kaiba.

"I think you know what I've overheard." He growled at me.

"That I slept with Joey Wheeler? What's it to you?" I smirked.

"It concerns me because you're an employee of my company, therefore you represent my company. If people are talking about one of my employees like she's some kind of slut, then it reflects back on my company." Kaiba stated.

"Alright, go on. Fire me. How dare I sleep with my boyfriend!" I said sarcastically.

"This is no laughing matter Miss Campbell!" Kaiba said, clearly aggravated.

"No really. You're upset because I slept with my boyfriend? I didn't tell people. Neither did Joey. You can fire me if you want, even though it's unfair dismissal I'm not going to take it to court, I don't have the money and the job isn't dear enough to me to do so." I said.

"I find it hard to believe that Joey didn't tell people." Kaiba replied.

"Yeah well believe it, he didn't. Apparently Brendon Wright is the one going around telling people, go hassle him." I frowned.

"You shouldn't have let this happen in the first place." Kaiba growled.

"Don't you think I know that?" I said, and then tried to hold myself together for a few seconds and then let myself go. I burst out crying.

"Do you regret sleeping with him?" Kaiba asked me.

"Kind of, yes. This is uncomfortable to talk about, but if I knew this would have happened I wouldn't have. But Brendon Wright would have seen us driving around anyway and told people the rumour anyway." I whimpered.

Then Seto Kaiba did the most out of character thing I had ever seen him do. He embraced me into a big hug, and wiped my tears.

WHAT?

I was also surprised, I expected his hug to be stiff, but it was warm and tight.

"I somehow doubt that Wheeler is as innocent as he lets on. But I won't stand to see you sad because of Wheeler, even if he didn't tell anyone what you two did." Kaiba said into my ear.

He grabbed me by my shoulders softly, and moved me so he could look at my face. We stared into each other's eyes for a moment, and I admired how deep his blue eyes seemed. He moved my hair behind my ears, and I held my breath, as I knew what he was going to do. He was going to kiss me.

As he started to lean in and I closed my eyes, I heard a familiar voice shout at Kaiba.

"Hey! Get off my girl you creep!"

By Joey bounding in, we were both bought back to earth and both Kaiba and I got back into character.

I guess it's lucky Joey came in, who knows what I would have done. Kaiba and I just aren't meant to be...are we?


	16. Chapter 15

**I've started writing a sequel instead of re-writing this initial story (I have 10 parts written so far, each chapter is 3,000+ words) and I really want to post it, but need to wait until I've finished re-posting this old stuff first. So I'm going to be posting three chapters a day of this story so I can finally upload the sequel in time for the 10 year anniversary of this story (I wrote this story when I was seventeen back in 2010). So be prepared for upload spam over the next month!**

* * *

When I met Kaiba at the school gate at the end of the day, I knew it was best just to forget the thing that happened in the empty classroom never happened. I didn't mention anything as I approached Kaiba.

He said nothing as his limousine driver opened the door for us, and I sat on the opposite side of him.

"My limousine driver bought your suit. It's on the seat next to you." Kaiba said, and I looked to the left. So it was.

It was a pinstriped suit, with what looked like a semi-short skirt and a nice white blouse to wear under the suit.

"It's nice." I replied.

"You're to wear that to work from now on. You've been promoted and you work all over Kaiba Corp, so you should dress corporately like every other employee." Kaiba said.

"That's fair enough." I replied.

"There's a meeting today with some affiliates of Kaiba Corp. Emma's kid is sick and she had to immediately take the day off, so you're to be my PA just for today. That means you have to attend this meeting with me." Kaiba explained.

"Yeah, sure. Okay." I replied, shortly again.

I don't know about Kaiba, but I was feeling really awkward around him.

We arrived at KaibaCorp, and I followed Kaiba out of the limousine to the lift.

"I'll give you 10 minutes to change and freshen up. You will meet me outside my office and we will go down to floor 1 for the conference room there." Kaiba said briskly, as we reached floor 12.

I ignored him, as I walked to the ladies restroom. I splashed my face with cold water as today's events replayed in my mind.

Everyone found out about Joey and I, and we received hell for it. Kaiba comforted me, and we almost kissed. Now he's acting as if we've grown apart and is being the cold jackass he always was. What is with that kid, he's on permanent PMS.

I changed into the suit that Kaiba's limousine driver bought me. I didn't know whether Kaiba instructed his limo driver to buy this kind of suit on purpose or not, but it showed off my personal "assets" then again, it was hard to find clothes that didn't. And I hate to admit that, because I sound so stuck up.

I then brushed my hair, and re did my make-up. I made sure it was 'fresh' and not caked on.

"Looking good, Miss Campbell." A guy informed me as I walked out of the ladies restroom.

He had black spiky hair, thick-rimmed glasses and brown eyes. I had never seen this man in my life.

"Uh, thanks?" I replied, walking out.

I met Kaiba outside his office, and his eyes scanned over my body, paying attention to a few specific parts...

"You look nice." He stated.

"Thank you." I replied, and I followed him as he took the lift.

"You really are too good for Wheeler." Kaiba said, as we both stood on opposite sides of the elevator.

"Who do you propose I be with then?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Someone who will appreciate you and who you are more. Someone more worthy." Kaiba said in a soft voice, and began to approach me.

He was standing right in front of me, and he looked down on me. I looked up, and he lifted me onto the bar of the elevator, so I was nearly eye level with him.

"We're about to be interrupted, I know it." I giggled, and sure enough, the elevator made a 'ding' sound and the doors opened up.

It was floor 6, and an employee walked into the elevator as Kaiba sprang back.

"WALKER!" Kaiba bellowed.

"What? Mr. Kaiba, I'm just going downstairs to grab the mail for our department!" 'Walker' stated, looking very frightened.

"Well be quick about it, I haven't seen anything productive come out of your department for a while." Kaiba growled, and 'Walker' stayed silent.

As we went through floor 3, my dad got on.

"Hey Dad." I smiled.

"Hey Ella. What are you up to today?" Dad asked me.

"Ella is my PA for today. She will be joining me in a meeting with our partners." Kaiba said to Dad.

"Wow, that's quite a big job." Dad replied, quite shocked

"I think Ella will be able to handle it." Kaiba replied, as we arrived on floor 1.

I waved goodbye to my father, and quickly followed Kaiba out of the lift. We arrived outside of a conference room.

"Inside are board of directors for Kaiba Corp's most elite affiliates. Mostly technological companies. We will be recording the meeting so you don't need to write anything. If any errands need to be run, you will run them. But you're mostly there to look pretty." Kaiba said, and then smirked at his choice of words.

"Ok." I nervously said, and I coyly followed him in.

"Kaiba! Who's this pretty young girl?" one of the men asked, shaking his hand vigorously and placing a kiss on my cheek.

"This is Ella Campbell. She's filling in for Emma my usual PA just for today." Kaiba replied, as we both took the spare 2 seats left.

"She's gorgeous." Another man said, and I blushed brightly.

"Yes, she is." Kaiba replied, looking at me.

I took it as him sucking up to the partners, as he quickly changed the topics. But this day was just getting weirder and weirder. Two near-kiss scenarios and now he's calling me 'gorgeous'?


	17. Chapter 16

It was a lazy Friday afternoon. I had the day off work; Kaiba said I wasn't needed today. I wasn't complaining, I wasn't in the mood to work anyway.

This Friday, I had accounting second last and English last. Unfortunately for me, I was in Accounting still and not the slightest bit motivated to do my work. The teacher was going on about the previous night's homework, which I of course did (Duke didn't, he was copying down my answers frantically as the teacher was asking each student for the correct answer – he was hoping he'd copy all my work before she got to him.

"I so can't be bothered with this. I'm going to decorate my school planner." I yawned to Duke.

"If you don't concentrate, Mrs. Baker will ask you a question. That women should be wanted by the government, she can read minds." Duke shivered.

"No she can't, Duke. She won't ask me anyway, I'm pretty much off her radar. If she does ask, I'm such a good student I'll easily get the answer anyway." I replied.

"No you won't. You'll be too busy writing down "E.C. 4 J.W." or something, and then she'll ask 'Ella! What's the total amount of assets' and you'll be like 'which assets?' and then she will yell at you." Duke sniggered.

"Yeah, we'll see." I shrugged, and drew hearts all around the front page of my school planner.

Soon enough, Duke's prediction was correct.

"Ella! If we didn't correct the mistake of the bank ledger account being credited and not debited, would there have been an understatement or overstatement of assets?" Mrs. Baker asked me.

"Um, overstatement. Because when you debit the bank account, the figure decreases, so the cash asset would have been overstated by $2,500 dollars." I replied, looking down at my work.

"Damn, you're good." Duke whispered to me.

The bell went, and we all packed up our books as the teacher called out the homework for the weekend. I wrote it on my hand, so I could write it in my planner during English class.

As I made my way to English, Joey pulled me in the opposite direction.

"Hey what are you doing?" I asked, "The classroom is the other way"

"There's a duel tournament on the beach tonight. It's no major tournament like Duelist Kingdom or Battle City, but it'll be nice to dust off my deck for something with no major stakes. So because I know you'll want to go home and pretty up, we're not going to English today." Joey informed me.

"Uh, Joey. If we don't turn up to English, the teacher will notice, check if we were absent the entire day – which we were not and will give us a detention." I told him.

"Yeah but it's worth it Ella! Come on, duel monsters tournament!" Joey whined.

"Okay Joey, I'll compromise. But it involves us going to English for just a few minutes." I told him, and he reluctantly followed me.

"Hi Mr. Morgan!" I said faux cheerfully to our English teacher as Joey and I walked in.

"Hi Ella. How are you today?" The English teacher asked.

"I'm good, but I'm a little bit of a dilemma. You see, for the English language analysis task you set us, I've been typing it up on my computer. I have it on my USB memory stick which I have with me, but because it requires a computer, I can't do it here in class." I frowned.

"Oh, that's not good Ella. I trust you though, you're one of my best students. You can go to the library this class to work on it if you would like." Mr. Morgan replied.

"Thanks Mr. Morgan. Only Joey's is saved on mine too as he doesn't have a USB memory stick. Would he be able to join me in the library?" I asked.

"Hmmm…" Mr. Morgan frowned "Well, alright I'll let Joey go as well. Only because you've been such a great influence on him Ella. Ever since you arrived, all of his teachers have commented on him completing a lot more of his homework, and getting higher marks."

"Thanks Mr. Morgan!" Joey and I both chorused as we picked up our books and headed to our lockers.

"What a sucker." Joey laughed.

"It pays to be a teacher's pet." I smirked.

"Meh, not worth it." Joey smirked back, as I packed my books into my bag.

"We're going to have to be careful escaping the prison." I giggled, as we walked down the hallway.

"No problem Ella, I've skipped plenty of times. Just walk down the hallways casually, people in the classrooms will probably notice but won't make a big deal of it. Then, when we get into the yard and we're in eyeshot of the principle's office, we RUN!" Joey commented.

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." I agreed.

As we walked past a science classroom, I saw Kaiba sitting in a seat. He saw Joey and I, and raised his hand. He said something to the teacher, who looked in our general direction and we ducked. We saw her head to the door, so we sprinted off into the distance and didn't stop running until we got to Joey's car.

"Okay, if she dobs us in, we'll tell Mr. Morgan that she spotted us while we were walking to the library. That was the way to the library anyway." I said to Joey, as he roared up the engine.

"So, shall we go to your place and get ready then?" Joey asked.

"Yeah my place is good, my Dad will be at work." I replied.

* * *

"Um, I'd offer you food, but we seriously have none. There's peanut butter out of the jar if you're interested though." I said, and his eyes lit up.

I opened the jar, dipped my finger in, licked it and then threw the jar to Joey.

"There's drinks in the fridge and cable television in the lounge room. I'm going to have a shower." I called out to Joey, as I walked into my room.

I got my bikini top, my bikini bottoms and some union jack board shorts I got as a souvenir a while ago, and took them into the bathroom with me.

I stripped down, ran the water and had a nice relaxing shower. When I got out of the shower, I blow dried my hair, and tied it up. I put on my bikini, and looked into the mirror.

Because of my chest size, I had problems finding a bikini. I finally did find a very expensive one, but it was still very small on me. I had to be very careful wearing this; one wrong move and I'd be exposed to the world. It had happened before... I was too vain to not wear a swimsuit though.

I walked out into the lounge room, where Joey was watching Maury Poverich.

"How do I look?" I asked nervously, and Joey's eyes popped out of his head.

He scooped me up into his arms, and carried me bridal style to my room.

"This is how good you look." He smirked, and placed me onto my bed.

If I look good enough for sex, I wonder what will happen tonight at the dueling tournament?


	18. Chapter 17

Joey and I were in the car on the way to picking up Tea and Yugi from Yugi's house.

After we were...done, I fixed my hair back into a ponytail, applied a small amount of make-up, and wore a black fitting shirt over my bikini top.

"This is going to be my first dueling tournament with a girl on my arm." Joey informed me.

"Sorry it has to be me." I smiled.

"Are you kidding? You're model material. Bikini model at that. I wouldn't have it any other way!" Joey excitingly said.

We pulled next to Yugi's Gramps shop and we got out so we could talk to Gramps for a second.

"Hey Gramps how are you?" Joey asked as we walked in.

"Hi Joey, hi Ella. I'm good thanks. Yugi and Tea are upstairs, Yugi is preparing for the tournament! I take it you're going to enter as well?" Gramps asked Joey.

"Yeah I can't wait to kick some duelist butt!" Joey replied, and Gramps giggled.

"Well, have fun tonight." He said as Tea and Yugi walked down the stairs.

"Ready to go?" Joey asked, and Yugi and Tea nodded.

* * *

"We have a few big names here for quite a small tournament." Yugi said once we got there.

"There's the obvious three – Rex Raptor, Weevil Underwood and Mako Tsunami. Reckon Kaiba will show?" Tea asked.

"Kaiba's coming." I smirked.

"How do you know?" Yugi asked.

"He asked me not to work tonight because I 'wasn't needed' therefore he's coming." I replied.

"He probably wants to beat Yug! HA! He wishes!" Joey laughed.

"Well it'll be nice to have a duel with Kaiba with no stakes on the line." Yugi said.

"Well, now we're at the beach, I can take this top off." I smirked, and peeled the black fitting t-shirt off my body.

My barely fitting bikini bought the looks of a lot of guys around me.

Joey smirked at the attention I was getting.

"That's right, Joey Wheeler now has a hot girlfriend!" He shouted at them.

"Wow, so Joey finally got a girlfriend?" I heard an unknown female voice say from behind me.

We all turned around, and a beautiful blonde was standing there, looking amused.

"Oh, hi Mai." Yugi said.

"Here comes trouble." Tea whispered into my ear, un amused.

"Please don't tell me this is Joey's girlfriend," The blonde said pointing to me "she's WAY too pretty for him."

"Yep, she sure is. Ella, this is an old friend, Mai Valentine." Joey said.

"Nice to meet you." I smiled, and then instantly recognized her.

"You too, hun. You must be brave to put up with Joey." She smirked.

"Haha, yeah, I guess." I trailed off.

"WE are going for a walk." Tea said, and dragged me off.

"Look, there's probably something you should know." Tea sighed.

"What?" I asked.

"Joey used to REALLY like Mai. She never liked him back, she saw him as a kid. Those feelings have faded, even watch them." Tea said, and we looked over.

Mai was talking to both Joey and Yugi, and Joey was only semi-paying attention, he kept looking over at both Tea and I. When he saw us, he gave us a smile and a wave, and I waved back.

"See? His attention is all on you. If he didn't like Mai anymore, he'd be staring at her cleavage or something. But I thought you should know, in case you got the wrong impression or heard it from someone else." Tea explained.

"D-do you think Joey only originally liked me because I have the same body type as Mai?" I asked Tea.

"God no. He liked you from day one, he kept stuttering about you during class and when you weren't around. The Domino High school uniform, it's designed to hide that stuff. He didn't know your body type until he saw you in casual dress in your first date." Tea said.

"Okay, because this is going to sound sort of weird...I briefly had a 'fling' with a guy named Oliver back home in L.A. He was WAY obsessed with Duel Monsters, Kaiba was his biggest hero. He was even more obsessed with Mai, and even admitted to me he only liked me because I reminded him of Mai. He liked me for a year after that, but I dumped his arse back to the Stone Age." I explained.

"Wow, what a loser. But I can assure you, Joey likes you for being Ella Campbell, not because you remind him of Mai Valentine." Tea replied.

Joey ran up to us.

"I couldn't stand Mai anymore, and I missed you too much." He pouted.

"Awww, that's cute. I'm going to see if Tristan and Serenity are here yet." Tea said, and walked off.

Joey walked closer to me, and wrapped his arms around my small body. He kissed my head.

"Aw, well isn't this cute." We heard a sarcastic voice, and I looked up to see Kaiba standing there.

"Why do you care?" I asked, breaking away from Joey.

"I called you two cute, I didn't say I was getting involved in your private matters." Kaiba sneered, and then he noticed I was wearing a bikini.

His eyes trailed to my chest, and he seemed stuck there for a moment.

I saw Joey snigger at the corner of my eye, and I could tell he noticed too.

"Get lost rich boy!" Joey sneered.

"With pleasure, just to get away from you mutt." Kaiba said coldly, and strode off.

"I can't believe rich boy was checking out my girl! I have something he doesn't have" Joey cheered, doing a happy dance.

"Why, why, why if it isn't Joey Wheeler." I heard a high-pitched voice say.

"Weevil Underwood! What do you want?" Joey snarled.

"Who's the girl?" Weevil asked, as his attention turned to me.

"This, this is my girlfriend Ella." Joey smiled.

"Well, I'm challenging you to a duel after we sign up." Weevil sneered, and walked away.

"Hey, where do you sign up anyway?" I asked Joey.

"I don't know, I'm going to go find Yugi again and find out." Joey shrugged.


End file.
